Changing Tides
by knicnort3
Summary: Jake left after seeing Bella on her wedding day. 8yrs later, he returns to visit his dying dad. Billy's last wish is for him to finish high school so Jake agrees. He meets beautiful Vanessa Mason and imprints,but who is this girl?-BD AU *romance, drama, adventure, a little mystery, even some humor *sum inside*
1. Last Wish

**Changing Tides**

_Description__: Jacob left town after seeing Bella at her wedding, vowing to kill any of the Cullens if he ever crossed paths with them again. Eight years later, he comes back to LaPush to see his father one last time on his death bed and Billy's last wish is for Jacob to finish high school. Knowing he couldn't attend school close by, he looks for a boarding school and meets the beautiful and mysterious Vanessa Masen and imprints. When strange things happen and the resident witch coven threatens Vanessa's life, will Jacob finally learn the truth about his imprint, and how will it make him feel towards his most hated enemies, the Cullens? _(Post BD-AU)

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns all Twilight related characters and storylines including those of which are in this story.

Warning: Mild language, violence, sexual situations, and drinking; but hopefully nothing bad enough to warrant an M rating. Let me know in the reviews if I ever need to change it.

Note to reader: All of my stories have a beginning, middle, and end. Many stories I've read seem to go on and on, please know this one will not. I try to update every couple of nights or so, but the more reviews I get, the faster the updates come. As with all twilight stories, I tend to like to end things on a happy note, so keep that in mind when reading.

Ch 1 – _Last Wish_

(Jacob's POV)

I never stayed in one place longer than necessary; the last thing I wanted was to create any sort of relationships, because feeling nothing was better than the pain of losing someone. I phased after seeing Bella on her wedding day and after learning her honeymoon plans, I just couldn't be there anymore; in fact I didn't want to be anywhere anymore, at least not as a human. I had stayed in wolf form for five whole years without ever phasing back to human, but I got tired of constantly hearing about what was going on back home through the minds of my pack members. So then I realized that perhaps it would be better to give up phasing all together and start the aging process again, I didn't have anything worth living forever for anyway.

It took a few months to adjust from living as nothing but animal for so long, to living as nothing but man, but when I finally felt calm enough, I knew I needed to work and I got a perfect job for my traveling lifestyle, as a cross country truck driver. It was just what I needed; I lived out of hotels and spent every night getting drunk at the local bars. Early in my career, I would take random women I met back to my hotel room, and forgot their names by the time I stopped in the next city, but even that got mundane and I lost any desire I once had. I gave up my meaningless one night stands but continued to numb myself with alcohol every night in the various towns I stayed in. Three years past without phasing and I was having an easier time resisting the urge to as well; I started to believe that I was finally free of the old Jacob Black.

I was down south in Texas making a pit stop from my California to Florida route, and of course spent the last few hours of the night in the closest bar I could find. I always went to bars by whatever trashy hotel I was staying in because I couldn't take my truck into small parking lots, and I didn't want to have to walk back too far wasted. I was a big guy and had the whole one o eight degrees thing going, so it took a lot to get me drunk, but I usually stayed long enough to get me there, I needed the mental release that the numbness from alcohol brought.

This particular bar that I had been drinking in most of the night, was a few blocks away from the hotel, but it was the only one I could find so I decided that walking that far drunk was still better than not drinking at all. I stumbled around for a block or so, on my way in for the night, when a familiar scent filled the air around me. Great, just what I needed.

"Ok _gUYs_…whY don't _yOu_ just…gO _plAy_ SoMewHere elSe." I said completely slurring my words. I hadn't come across any vampires since I gave up phasing, and I was too drunk to care anyway.

"Ooo, I love them when they are all woosy." The female vampire said

"No, he smells off, let's go find someone else to drink" The male said

"No nO, It's jUst the BeEr…PleAse Come _dRink_ mEe." I had no idea why I was actually trying to convince them to attack me, but then again I never thought straight when I was drunk.

"See baby? He wants it." The female told her mate

"He doesn't smell like the normal bar hopper, he smells like…a dog or something. I'm completely turned off by him but if you really want him go ahead and have him yourself, I'm going after that blond coming out right now; have fun babe." The male said. _Damn it_.

I couldn't just stand by knowing they were about to kill someone, so as much as I didn't want to, I phased. It actually felt really good being in wolf form again, it was like stretching after being confined in a small space for a long time. I was immediately sober after I phased, and completely focused on the two vampires; they had looks on their faces that were a mixture of being stunned and completely horrified. Killing them was easy, instinctual, just like riding a bike it wasn't something I could forget or even get rusty at. But because I had grown out my hair, my wolf fur dragged annoyingly on the ground and got in my way as I collected the body pieces into a pile. I phased back to human and started a fire in a trash can before throwing the vamps in, it was a good thing that it was in the middle of the night; walking to the hotel naked would have been much worse if it was day time.

I climbed in bed that night but because I wasn't drunk anymore, I had a hard time sleeping. I seriously thought about going back to the bar, but I couldn't get the desire to phase again out of my head. I didn't realize how much I actually missed it until I was forced to do it again. I wasn't far from some desolate rolling hills, so I tied a pair of shorts on my leg and decided to go running on all fours. The speed felt so amazing, especially after not feeling anything for so long, and I couldn't run fast enough. I was grateful for the silence in my head, it was even late at night in Washington so I figured everyone would be sleeping and I didn't have to worry about communicating with them mentally. When I finally had enough for the night, the first thing I did when I got back to the hotel was cut my hair, I was actually glad to see it go.

The next day I slept in because running as a wolf was always tiring, but when I finally did wake up, I was running way late. I was supposed to be in Florida in two days and I still had about fifteen hours left but with how slow my truck was, and considering eating and sleeping breaks, I knew it was going to be hard to make my deadline.

I was actually making good time and stopped in Alabama for the night. I told myself the whole way that I was going to go straight to bed without going to a bar or for a run, but my need became too much and surprisingly my desire to run way outweighed my desire to get drunk. The surrounding area had many sites of undeveloped stretches of land, so it was easy to find an area that wouldn't expose me to anyone. I loved to feel the wind through my fur, and it was so much better now that my hair was short again. I was just about to call it a night, when a familiar voice came into my head.

_Jake?_ – Sam said surprised to have our minds connected again after so long.

I really didn't want to reconnect with him so I stayed quiet, though I knew he sensed me anyway.

_Jake, please just listen to me. It's your dad he has stage three cancer and needs to see you; I don't think there is much time left_. – Sam said sympathetically.

My heart sank as I listened to Sam in my head; I couldn't believe how stupid I have been over the past years. Was Bella really worth me losing all this precious time I was missing from my father? Of course not. She was just some stupid girl that made stupid decisions and now she's off living a stupid undead life with her stupid vampire husband. But out of the two of us, I was really the stupid one for loving someone so much who doesn't give a crap about me.

I decided that getting home was the most important thing, so I went back to my hotel, collected the few things I had, and took a cab to the closest airport. I thought about just running the whole way home, but a plane was still faster. I didn't care about abandoning my truck; it had a tracking devise on it and I was fairly certain I couldn't make my deadline anyway, so that meant I would be fired but that was OK I was planning on quitting anyway.

I arrived in LaPush later that evening and found my father's house empty, so I started to panic, was I too late? I grabbed the keys to my old rabbit, they were still in my room where I left them, my father moved nothing of mine, and I drove over to the Uley's house.

"Oh my god, Jacob Black!" Emily sang when she saw me pulling up in her front yard. She ran over and gave me a huge hug.

"Hey Em. How have you been?" I asked solemnly

"Good, I just can't believe you are actually here it's been too long. Sam said you were coming back but I guess I needed to really see you to believe it." Emily said, and then welcomed me into the house.

"How's my dad?" I asked her knowing she would know.

"He's hanging in there. He's been waiting a long time for you to come home, Sam has been trying to contact you for a while to let you know, but he could never reach you." Emily explained.

"Yeah, I didn't phase for a while, I'm such an idiot; I can't believe I actually allowed myself to be gone for so long."

"Don't get to down on yourself Jake, you were grieving for you lost friend, everyone understands that." Emily said supportively.

"She's not worth my grief, she made her choices and I chose to mourn her, but I chose wrong and now I lost so much precious time with my father." I told her completely hating myself.

"Your dad is at the hospital; Sam told him you were coming, so he's been expecting for you." Emily told me knowing I was looking for him.

"Thanks Em, I should probably be getting over there, I wasted enough time already. I'll see you later." I hopped back in my rabbit, and headed for the hospital wondering what I could possibly say to my father that could possibly make up for my absence.

The hospital in LaPush wasn't a long term or critical care facility, so my dad was at the hospital in Forks. I hated that hospital. It had been years since Carlisle worked there but under the bleach smell and the smell of sickness and open wounds, somehow I could still smell him faintly in the halls. I guess it wasn't that surprising though, vamp snitch lingered and with the amount of time he spent there, his smell would probably be there forever.

I found my father's room without even having to ask anyone where it was, I would always remember his scent for the rest of my life. I lingered outside the room in the hall for what felt like hours, trying to find the strength to face him after so long and in that condition. Finally a nurse came by and announced my presence loud enough that my father must have heard.

"Hello there, you must be Mr. Black's son? He's been waiting for you." The nurse said with a welcoming smile before walking away to do some rounds.

I took a deep breath to calm myself, then went inside. My dad _was_ waiting for me when I walked through the door, and he smiled when our eyes met. He looked horrible, like he aged thirty years instead of the eight since I saw him last. His hair was starting to turn grey when I left, but now it was almost completely silver. His once plump, full checks had sunken in so his face almost looked hollow, he had dark circles under his eyes and his skin was pasty looking. This was not how I wanted to remember my father.

"Jacob." My dad said so happy to see me again.

"Hey dad. You look like crap." I said quickly and he laughed, but it looked like he was in a lot of physical pain.

"Well, I haven't been to the beauty parlor for a while" He joked

"How are you feeling right now though, are you in any pain, are they treating you right?" I asked protectively.

"Yeah, they have me on all kinds of pain meds, I'm feeling pretty good actually." He assured me.

There were several long moments of awkward silence between us. I didn't know how to apologize for my extended absence and I had no idea how to even begin to say goodbye to him for good. I lost my mother when I was a child, it just seemed completely unfair that I was going to lose my father now like this. But then again, life wasn't fair especially not mine, I always seemed to draw the shortest stick in life. I forced myself to stop feeling sorry for myself, because that was just a stupid waste of time anyway.

"Dad…I'm so sorry for"

"Don't Jake. You don't have to apologize to me especially since you're here now, and that's what matters. You were hurting son, and I understand that." My dad said not wanting to spend any more time dwelling on the past.

"Has Rebecca been home to see you?"I asked him.

"Yeah, she's staying with Rachel and Paul. I guess you haven't been over there yet?" He rightfully assumed.

"No I just got in, but I went by Sam's and Emily said you were here."

We chit chatted for a few hours before visitor time was over in the hospital, so I told him good bye and went to his house for the night to sleep in my old room. I went back first thing in the morning, and was surprised to see my sisters already there; they both cried when they saw me. It was the first time the four of us had been together since my sisters were eighteen and Rebecca moved away for college.

I spent the next week getting reacquainted with my sisters and my father. Being around Paul didn't even bother me as much as it used to, in fact I was actually glad he was with Rachel, he really stepped up and helped take care of my dad when I was off being a selfish moron. With every passing day, I could see my father's life slipping away, he was going so quickly and I felt like there was still so much to say. Rachel, Paul, Rebecca and her husband Keanu, all went out to lunch one day, and I was going to go with them but my dad asked me to stay behind, he had something he wanted to speak with me privately about.

"Jake, I need you to do something;" My dad said with his raspy weak voice.

"Of course dad, name it."

"I know you are still grieving Bella's death but"

"Bella didn't die dad, she chose to become a disgusting leech." I corrected him. I had to fight the urge to leave right then, because the last thing that I wanted to talk about was Bella. As much as I tried to deny it, or how far I ran, I knew I would always care about her and completely hate her at the same time.

"Just the same, I've been here with Charlie as he mourned her, and I know how hard it is. You loved her so much and I know how it feels to lose someone you love like that. But son, I need you to move on with your life, I will never be able to rest easy if I'm worried about you." Was my father actually trying to give me a guilt trip on his death bed? That was so typical of him and I had to smile in spite of myself.

"Dad, you don't have to worry about me, I'm going to be Ok I promise." I tried reassuring him.

"I know son, but I want more for you in life than just being Ok. I want you to have a real job and god willing, a family of your own someday." My dad croaked

"Oh Dad, I can't promise that. I did the whole _in love_ thing and it didn't work, and I don't have any intentions on doing it again. Not everyone is meant to have deep relationships like that." I said wishing there was something else Billy would ask of me instead.

"Jake, you have never even had a real relationship, how do you know that's not something for you? Look I'm not asking you to fall in love tomorrow, just don't close yourself off to the possibility and…"My dad paused long enough for me to get frustrated

"And?"

"And, I want you to go back to school." My dad said cautiously. I was definitely not expecting him to say that.

"Dad, I don't have the credits to make it into a college, I only finished my sophomore year in high school, and I'll never get accepted anywhere." I tried to make him understand but he had a determined look on his face.

"You stopped aging at sixteen, I want you to finish _high school_, and then maybe you can go to college." He explained.

"I might have stopped aging at sixteen dad, but I certainly don't look it. Besides, my old teachers are still working here and someone will recognize me."

My dad smirked, and pulled some brochures off of the table next to him. "I had Rachel find these for me, they are all out of state boarding schools. Paul said he knows a guy who can make good fake ids and birth certificates for you." I was shocked that he was actually trying to sell me on this.

"Dad," I said shaking my head. "I can't get into these prep schools, and they're expensive, and I still have to have a parent to sign for me and all that."

"Rachel will sign for you as your legal guardian, and they have a scholarship program if you make the sport teams. Jake, listen to me, you need to do this, you need a fresh start and get your life back together. You don't have to start as a sophomore, start as a senior, it doesn't matter just start somewhere. Then the college scouts will come out and see you, and you'll get a scholarship to college too. Don't you see? This is your chance to make a real life for yourself, away from here and all of the painful memories that come with this town, but not completely detached like you were before."

I told my dad I would think about it, and I had to admit, it was a good plan, but the idea of going back to high school was just so unappealing to me. How could I pretend to be a normal kid after everything I had been through. But as much as I hated to think about him, that nasty blood sucker came to my mind; if Edward can pretend to be a high school student over and over again, then I should be able to handle it too, I mean it's just one year right? If it wasn't my father's last wish for me, then I would never have considered it, but I was gone senselessly for eight years while my father fought his own battle with illness back here. The least I could do was dedicate one short year of my meaningless existence to do something he really wanted of me.

***I think it's obvious where this story is going to go, but hopefully it should be fun just the same ****Please Review*******


	2. The New Pack

**Changing Tides**

Ch 2 – _The New Pack_

My father died on a Tuesday and the whole town came to his funeral. The tribal elders held a traditional ceremony which was symbolic of releasing the dead to the universe, allowing the body and soul to become one with the earth. No one wore black, and we celebrated his life with music and traditional dancing. It wasn't a conventional funeral to modern standards, but it was perfect for him and I knew he wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

"Jacob" Charlie Swan came up to me after the funeral was over. "I just wanted to give my condolences. Your dad was the best man I ever knew, and I know I would have never made it through Bella's death without him." Charlie held out his hand to shake mine; he seemed to be fighting back his tears.

"Thanks Charlie." I said quietly while shaking his hand. I felt really bad for him actually. Paul told me that Dr Fang called him when Bella was away on her honeymoon with the leech, and told him there was some kind of boating accident while they were scuba diving, and they were both killed. I mean really, they couldn't have given the man a better death for his daughter than that? It was really pathetic. I was glad I wasn't here to have to go through the charade of _that_ funeral; I probably would have spit on the empty grave and that would have just upset Charlie and Renee.

After I shook hands with everyone who ever knew my dad, I was tired and just wanted to go home. My dad left everything he had to my sisters and me, but there really wasn't anything that Rachel and Becca wanted, so I got everything. I spent the rest of the summer fixing up the house with the idea of renting it out while I was away pretending to be a high school jock somewhere. The summer ended too soon and it was time to make good on my last promise to my dad. Paul came through with all the fake paperwork I would need to pass as a seventeen year old, just in time for me to leave.

"Jacob Wolfe…really?" I said completely frustrated at my brother in law.

"Hey, you can't be Jacob Black, the internet connections make it hard to start a new life, try goggling your name bro; it has your address and everything." Paul defended his choice

"No I get it, but why Wolfe?" I said annoyed

"Why the hell do you think?" Paul said teasingly

"Whatever." I said under my breath and walked away.

I decided on going to the Berkshire School in Massachusetts, they were had an open tryout for the football team, so I sent in a lame tape of me playing. The head coach went as far as flying out to meet with me in person, and he immediately offered me a full scholarship. I figured Massachusetts was a good place to be anyway, I knew they had vamp traffic there, and it would be good to play super hero by night and go hunting for vampires.

I packed up the few clothing items that I had, and Rachel and Paul took me to the airport, Becca and her husband flew back home after the funeral. While I was waiting for the plane, a familiar face came happily into view.

"Hey Jake!"

"Seth, why the hell are you here?" I asked confused

"My mom called the school to see if they needed any more football players, and they did, so here I am." Seth said excitedly.

"I thought you finished high school already?"

"Yeah, but I never played football. Our school didn't even have a team and I didn't make it into any colleges, so now here's my chance." Seth explained.

I wasn't happy about taking Seth with me. I didn't know him all that well; he was only a wolf for a few months before I took off, but I did know that he went to that joke of a wedding because he actually was friends with that disgusting bloodsucker. But if I was really being honest with myself, I didn't want Seth to come because he was just so damn positive all the time, and that kind of happiness was nauseating.

We arrived in Massachusetts that night, and there was a car waiting to bring us to the school. Apparently Rachel and Sue set it up so Seth and I would be pretending to be cousins, and we were also roommates; at least I wouldn't have to bunk with some annoying, weird, teenaged geek that I would have to be careful of what I said around.

Seth and I got settled in to our room and he claimed top bunk, which was fine by me. We woke up really early the next morning to start football practice. There were still a few days before classes started, but practices actually started the week before, but the coaches didn't mind that we were coming late, they were just happy to have us at all.

I was the middle linebacker, and Seth was the strong side linebacker; it was all way too easy. Seth and I were unstoppable and it was only fitting that we were on the defense, it was in our nature to be defending people. The hardest thing we had to do was control our strength, even in human form, we were way stronger than any other human and we had to be careful to not cross the line between human strength and wolf strength.

"Jake?" Seth asked while we were standing there at practice in between plays

"What?" I said annoyed

"Do you see those girls over there?" He pointed to a group of girls in the stands

"Yeah, so?"

"Dude, they are totally into you; they keep giggling and talking about how dreamy you are." Seth said excitedly

"Seth" I whispered angrily at him "They're teenagers; we're full grown men, that's disgusting and illegal."

"We're teenagers too, we stopped aging…"

"Yes moron, I know that, but it still doesn't make it right. We're not here to date, let's get this year over with and then you can date all you want in college." I told him in a forceful whisper.

"Wolfe, ClearRiver!" The coached called us over. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the names we were going by. I didn't get to pick mine, but Seth actually came up with ClearRiver all on his own, so original. He said he was going to go by Wolfe too because we were supposed to be cousins, but he thought it would get too confusing on the team, so our story was that our mothers were sisters.

We ran over to where the coach was standing.

"What's up coach?" I asked him.

"You boys are doing wonderfully with the defense, but our offense is seriously lacking. You guys don't happen to have any more cousins that would want to play for us do you?" The coach asked.

"Heck yeah, coach" Seth said at the same time as I said "No" We both looked at each other annoyingly.

"Well, if you boys wouldn't mind calling them to see if they would be interested in playing, that would be awesome. If they are half as good as you two, we're going to be a sure bet for the playoffs this year."

After the coach dismissed us to the locker rooms, and there wasn't anyone close enough to hear me, I let Seth have it. "What the hell Seth? Who is going to want to come play for us?" I asked him

"Well I know Embry would, he's not doing anything back home, and Quill would if it wasn't for Claire, but maybe Collin and Brady too." Seth said excited at the thought of having more of our pack here.

"Fine, I'll call them. But Seth if too many come, we're going to draw too much attention to ourselves and people might start asking questions." I tried making him understand.

When we got back to our dorm room, I called Sam to see what he thought. He didn't see any issues with it, so he said he'd ask around and see if anyone wanted to come play football and get a free education while doing it. Apparently, Brady just imprinted a few days before, and Collin didn't imprint but he had a steady girlfriend that he didn't want to leave but Seth was right, Embry was more than happy about coming to join us. Embry used to be my best friend, along with Quill, but things had been strained between us the whole summer, I think they were upset that I purposely never called them over the years. I knew Quill would never leave his imprint to come, but I didn't think Embry would come either because of our lack of contact since I had been in LaPush again; he came to my father's funeral, but that was the only time we spoke.

My coach wished we could find more, but was happy that at least Embry would come and play for the offense. Seth and I went to the airport to pick up Embry the next morning, and were surprised to see Leah with him.

"Leah" Seth wined, upset to see his big sister there.

"Oh shove it Seth." Leah snapped at him, and then she turned to me. "Sorry we're all crashing your high school experience Jacob, but I promise I'll try to stay out of your boy's way." Leah said

"Uh, Leah? I know you could run circles around these humans, but still, they're not going to let you play with us." I told her cautiously then braced myself for her wrath.

"I know, I'm not here to go to school; I just thought a change of scenery would be good." Leah said uncharacteristically pleasant. "I'm going to get a job and a little apartment close by. I just thought that since all you guys were here, including my brother, I would be able to get some distance from home but still be part of the pack." She explained.

Seth groaned, but I didn't really see a problem with it. I know that Leah was always a pain, but I could understand her desire to escape the hurtful memories of home. Leah parted ways with us and went job hunting while Seth and I brought Embry to our dorm room. Our room was actually meant to be for three, but we were just lucky before with just the two of us, and now they brought in the third bed and the small room got even more cramped. I made Seth and Embry sleep on the bunks, and I took the new bed that was stuffed in the corner under the window.

Even though we were all equals in the pack and I had been away for so long, I felt responsible for all of them. Maybe because I used to be like Sam's beta, or maybe because I was actually supposed to be alpha because of lineage, but whatever the reason, they treated me like I was in charge too.

The three of us went to practice, and the coach was more than happy with Embry's skills, but after seeing the three of us together, he decided to keep us together and made Embry the weak side linebacker.

It was Saturday and school started on Monday, so we spent the evening after practice learning the area. Leah joined us and the four of us patrolled the surrounding forest for any signs of trouble.

_Hey guys, do you hear that?_ – Leah asked mentally as we ran in wolf form.

_I don't hear anything_ – Seth said quickly

_Me either Leah_ – Embry added.

_Exactly! Nothing. Shouldn't we hear Sam and the rest of the pack back home, they should be out patrolling right now too, shouldn't they?_ – Leah pointed out.

_Well, maybe they are taking a break_ – Seth thought.

_No, I don't think so. I can sense Sam there, I just can't hear him_ – I told them

_Sam? Saaam?_ - Embry asked trying to make contact with him, but there was no answer.

_Sam?_ – I asked this time, and then his voice came to my head

_Jacob? Is everything Ok?_ – Sam asked me

_Wow, Sam can't hear us, or we him, but you two can hear each other, that's weird._ – Seth said to me.

Somehow, the four of us managed to form our own pack apart from the main pack back home, and I was now the alpha. I didn't ask for this position, but I couldn't refuse it either; it was supposed to be mine all along. We discovered that Sam and I could speak to each other as alphas, but only hear what the other wanted us to hear, like as if we were having a normal conversation instead of hearing every thought in each other's mind like before. Sam didn't seem upset about this, and neither did any of my new pack members. We all figured it was because we were so far away, but we weren't sure what would happen if we ever moved back to LaPush again. Would I be able to turn off the Alpha thing after being one for a while? But that wasn't a question than needed to be answered in that moment.

We didn't come across any vampires that night, but we definitely could smell some trails that were only a little over a week old, so we knew we would have to patrol every night in case more came into the area.

Sunday came and went, and before we knew it, it was Monday and time to start our new roles as high school students.

*******Please Review*******


	3. Steel Cables

**Changing Tides**

Ch 3 _– Steel Cables_

Ugh! I hate teenagers. Not only do they run around thinking that their lives are so important, but they are completely hormone driven. I walked through campus to my first class, and there must have been six girls who grabbed my ass, and four others actually came up and asked me to meet them in their room that night. I've never seen these girls before, little alone talked to them; at least an introduction would have been nice before sexually harassing me.

My first class was geography; at least I knew I could ace one class. I had been so many places that I was sure this class was going to be a breeze, and the first day certainly was. The school was on what they called a block schedule, so we only had three classes a day and they rotated per semester. Monday, Wednesday and Friday I would have Geography, then English, lunch and then Physics. Great, I can't wait for the last one.

Tuesday and Thursdays I had Spanish, lunch, then Economy and because I was a senior and on the football team, my classes ended at just those for the semester.

All of my classes were over by two thirty so I could go to football practice, which was more than fine by me.

Besides being repeatedly groped all day, Monday went by smoothly. Just as I predicted I was already lost in my classes but I knew that was going to happen before I came. After practice, we went patrolling and then to bed. I was exhausted but my two roommates sounded like they were starting the worse choir ever, with their loud persisting snores. I grabbed a book off the nightstand next to me, and chucked it as hard as I could at Embry. It didn't hurt him of course, but it startled him enough to jump out of bed and immediately phase.

"Jeeze Embry!" I shouted at him as his wolf took up practically the whole room.

Seth sat up quickly. "What? What's wrong?" He said groggily. I swear if he even so much as twitches like he's going to phase too, I'll end him.

"Nothing Seth, everything is fine, Embry is just a moron." I explained.

"Hey, you didn't have to throw a book at me. Damn. Look it's one of the big ones too." Embry complained after he phased back.

The room was a complete mess. It wasn't exactly clean before, the three of us were pretty much pigs, but now things were broken too. The lamp, the desk that the lamp was on, the chair; even the post of my bed broke. I refused to take any blame for this, he really needs to control himself; what if he was bunking with someone who wasn't us, he would have exposed himself then what?

Embry was pissed at me for the rest of the night and the whole way to our first class on Tuesday. We had Spanish together so he decided to give me the cold shoulder all the way there. Like I really cared.

We were both huge guys, so the teachers seemed to always seat us in the back, usually at an actually table because the desks were too small for us to fit our legs under. There was only four other guys in the class with us, and the rest were girls, I was just glad we got there early so my butt was already on the chair before the girls had a chance to pinch me some more.

There was only a minute left before the tardy bell rang, so Embry and I were relieved to have the two seats directly in front of us empty. We were tall so we didn't worry about not being able to see or anything, but the more space between us and the crazed girls in the room, the better.

But just my luck two girls came charging in just as the bell rang, the teacher gave them a look of disapproval

"Miss Burns, Miss Mason, I will not tolerate tardiness in my class." The teacher told the girls.

"Sorry Mr. Villa" The girl with the strange colored curly hair said.

"Just because you were my TA last year Miss Mason, doesn't mean I will give you any slack. I expect twice as much from you because I know you are capable of it." The teacher told her.

I purposefully refrain from making eye contact with any of the girls at this school, because the couple times that I did, they thought that I was into them, which was completely not the case. So when the two girls giggled annoyingly towards us to sit in the empty chairs, I looked away immediately. But the smell of the curly haired one was completely overpowering, she was unlike anything I ever smelled before.

On the surface, she smelled like strawberries, and as much as I didn't want to, I thought about Bella. I could almost guarantee that this girl used the same shampoo as Bella did, I had her smell memorized back then, and this girl smelled very similar. But I guess many girls used that shampoo, so I tried to ignore the memory that accompanied the hair product, because I definitely didn't want to have to think about the girl that ruined my life every time someone came into the room who used similar products. Under the smell of strawberries though, this girl had a scent that was completely unique. I couldn't exactly place it, it had a sweetness to it that had nothing to do with the strawberries, and it was delicate like the flowers in spring time. I then realized what a complete idiot I was for trying to put a name to this girls scent, how stupid was I?

Every question that the teacher asked, the girl in front of me would raise her hand and answer in perfect Spanish; well as far as I could tell, I was really bad at the language myself. Her voice was as sweet and appealing as her smell, but that just seemed to piss me off too. It was obvious this girl was one of those stuck up know-it-alls who liked to shove their knowledge in other people's faces. Even her expensive clothing and the way she walked screamed _spoiled snob_. But the worst part of sitting behind this girl was the fact that she kept tossing her hair over her shoulder, sending a wave of her intoxicating scent right in my face.

Embry kept looking over at me sensing my frustrated annoyance at the girl in front of me, and kept asking me if everything was Ok.

"Mr. Khall, Is there something you would like to share with the whole class?" The teacher asked Embry because he kept talking to me. Embry had another wonderful last name to go by. He decided that he liked his real last name Call, so he just changed the spelling, but pronounced it the same.

"Uh, no sir. Sorry, I won't talk anymore." Embry said quietly and slightly intimidated, he always hated getting in trouble with teachers.

"Pansy" I said so quietly that no one but him could hear. He answered me with a swift kick under the table, so I returned the assault and stabbed him in the leg with my pencil. He kept his face strait, not wanting to get in trouble again, but I knew he was planning a retaliation in his head.

After school was over for the day, we went to the locker rooms to get ready for practice. Embry and I were in full blown war between each other but strange enough, our playful competition seemed to heal any riff we still had between us. It was like all that time when we didn't speak never happened, and we were as close as we ever were.

"Ok Boys! Fall In" The coach yelled at all of us, so we ran into a group huddle. "Ok, our first scrimmage game is tomorrow after classes, Minn High is coming to play us and they were state champions last year. Just because it's a practice game, doesn't mean I want any slacking off do you understand me?"

"YES COACH" We all said in unison and clapped once together, just as we were trained to do.

We practiced for an extra hour just to prepare for the next day game, and our teammates were all beat. But Seth and Embry better not be tired, because we still had at least two hours of patrolling after everyone else went to bed.

We headed back to the locker room to shower and collect our things, when a couple of our teammates came up to us.

"Hey guys, uh, I know we haven't talked much since you got here, but it's tradition for the seniors to throw a big party after the first scrimmage game of the season. So you guys in?" Steve asked, I think that was his name.

"Hell yeah!" Embry said before I had a chance to say no.

"Sounds like a blast. Do a lot of chicks come?" Seth asked, I swear he was just as bad as all the real teenagers here.

"Illegal" I reminded Seth too quiet for human ears to pick up on.

"Yeah man, all the cheerleaders come and the entire girls volleyball team." Kevin answered Seth

"Cool" I glared at Seth, so he didn't elaborate on his excitement about going to the party.

When we got back to the dorm room I laid into them "Come on guys, we sure as hell don't need to be going to some underage party."

"Oh lighten up Jake; do you have to be a prude all the time? Just go and forget about all your damn rules and have fun for once. No one says you have to sleep with any of these chicks, just dance and spend one evening forgetting all the crap running through your mind all the time." Embry ordered. Who the hell did he think he was telling _me_ what to do? Oh yeah, my best friend; damn him.

"Fine, but if you guys get yourselves into trouble, you're on your own." I told them, relenting control for once. I would have just let them go without me, but I was the Alpha and I needed to keep tabs on them just in case they ran into trouble, despite what I told them.

The next day, classes went by just as boring as ever; it was only the first week of school and I already hated every minute of it. I had no idea how I was going to make it the whole year, but I promised my dad so it really didn't matter how I felt.

I had to admit, I was slightly looking forward to the scrimmage, it would be good to go up against some new opponents instead of our teammates that we've been practicing against. We got dressed and hurried to the field.

The first half of the game was uneventful, neither team scored because our offense sucked, and the other team couldn't get through Embry, Seth and My defensive line. It was a complete stalemate. At halftime, the coach was so pissed at us, that he forced the whole team to take a knee and watch the cheerleader's half time routine as an especially brutal punishment.

The girls preformed some slutty number that made my teammates whistle and holler like a bunch of savages, it was disgusting. But against my will, my eyes zeroed in on a familiar girl dancing with the others. Her hair was her signature trademark; it was unlike anyone else's I had ever seen. It was dark and I couldn't see her face really well, but even outside I could easily pick out her unique scent. The other girls looked like they were pole dancing without the pole, but there was something beautiful by the way _this_ girl moved her body. She was graceful and precise at the same time, watching her was like watching art in motion, it was mesmerizing. What the hell was I thinking now? I shook out the images of the girl from my head, and redirected my thoughts to the rest of the game.

Finally our offense miraculously scored; it was a lucky catch and we won, seven to nothing. Horrible. We went back to the dorms and got showered and dressed for the _fun filled_ teen party that my adult pack members were so excited to attend. The party was at the quarterback's home a couple of miles off of campus. His parents were irresponsibly away on vacation for the next month and their _loyal_ son took full advantage. The kids in LaPush knew how to let loose, but they had nothing on these kids.

The house was set on acreage, so they were able to pump up the volume on the music louder than I ever heard before, it actually made my super human hearing ache from the sound.

"We can still leave." I told Embry and Seth while we stood outside considering the scene before us. Man did I feel old.

"Hey guys there you are, we were starting to think you weren't going to show." Mike said as he walked up behind us holding a couple cases of beer in his hands. Wonderful, now we were accessories to underage drinking.

Mike led us in the house where the music just got louder, it was deafening it was so loud.

"Alright, let's separate and make a few rounds, show our faces, then leave." I told Seth and Embry. I decided it was important to make an appearance at these sorts of events, if only to keep up with the charade. But in reality, that was just the excuse I was telling myself to justify our presence there.

I think the party was more than Seth and Embry bargained for too, because they agreed with me to leave as soon as it was acceptable.

"Hey, Jacob, great game tonight" Some guy from my geography class, who's name I didn't remember, said excitedly and held up his hand to give me a high five.

It seemed like most people knew me there, everyone saying hi and telling me how great the extremely lame game was. I recognized most of them but couldn't match their names to their faces, not that I really cared anyway. I started to get antsy and looked around for my little pack; Seth was on the dance floor with some girl who was way too young for him, and Embry looked to be flirting with another jailbait by the snack table. I rolled my eyes at the thought of them; they were so weak when it came to a pretty face.

Enough was enough, so I made my way through the crowd of grinding bodies on the dance floor to grab Seth, when someone slammed into my side with their flying elbow. She turned quickly to apologize and tripped on someone's foot falling right into me. I caught her easy enough and immediately smelled her familiar scent.

"I'm so sorry" She said quickly "I swear I'm not usually a klutz" She added, as she rested all her weight in my arms for a few moments, seeming like she didn't have any intention on actually getting up. And I didn't want her to either. It was a strange electric connection that passed between us as I held her protectively in my arms. She looked up at me and our eyes locked.

It was the first time I actually really looked at her. Her beauty was beyond anything I had ever seen before; her heart shaped face was pure perfection. She had high cheek bones, the kind that you usually only see on billboards and in magazines. Her lips were full and pink but she wore no lipstick, and her eyes were like melted chocolate. But it wasn't her breathtakingly gorgeous looks that had a hold of me; it was her soul as she became my gravity, and I became forever locked to her by a billion steel cables.

* * *

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	4. Friends

**Changing Tides**

A/N_: I just had to take a few sec.'s to congrats Mackenzie Foy as the new Renesmee. Stephenie Meyer confirmed via facebook that the actress got the role; good for her, she's beautiful! Remember, age doesn't matter in the Cullen world, who cares if she's 9. It'll all work out._

Ch 4 – _Friends_

"Vanessa, you are such a klutz" Some girl said as she came up to us. I was still holding her in my arms, but she stood up and stepped away from me when her friend came over to us.

"No, really; I'm usually not a klutz" She gave her friend an annoyed look.

The friend somehow squeezed between us so she could bat her eyes at me, I ignored her.

"Uh, are you Ok? I'm Jacob by the way." I introduced myself to my new imprint.

"Yeah, I know." She said looking like she was embarrassed. Her cheeks started to turn the most amazing color of pink, over her soft cream colored skin.

"Really?" I asked because we never actually spoke before.

"Well who doesn't? The whole school has been buzzing about you since you first got here; besides, I'm a cheerleader, it's sort of my job to know the players." She replied, and I got completely lost in the musical sound of her voice.

I was too busy marveling over her perfection to notice that I was staring at her, probably creeping her out. After a few more awkward but perfect moments of silence, her friend decided to butt in.

"So Vanessa, you ready to get back to our room?"

"Uh yeah sure, it's starting to get late isn't it?" She answered her friend. "Nice meeting you Jacob." She smiled then turned to leave.

"Wait!" I practically yelled at her, she stopped and turned back to me.

I didn't exactly have anything I needed to say, I just hated the feeling of her walking away from me and I wanted to delay her departure as long as possible.

"Uh…We have Spanish together. Tuesdays and Thursdays…" I paused trying to think of what else to say, she waited. "Well, tomorrow is Thursday and so, I guess I'll see you then."I told her sounding like a complete moron.

"Uh, Ok. See you then." She said quickly then turned and walked into the night. I knew there had been vampires in the area recently, so there was no way I was going to let her go out there without my protection, but I certainly didn't want her thinking I was some strange stalker either. I waited for a few moments, then ducked out of the party and followed her _at a safe distance_ until she got into the cab that she called to take her back to campus. Seth, Embry and I had taken a cab to the party too, as did most of the kids there, because cars weren't allowed at school. But as I watched her drive away, I didn't want to waste time waiting for my own cab, so I decided to run back to campus, it wasn't far for a wolf.

I stayed hidden in the line of trees along the side of the road, running at the pace of the cab, until it pulled into the gates of the school. I ran around to the back side of the campus and leaped over the wall before phasing back to human. It was late so there wasn't anyone around to see me, and people didn't usually frequent that part of the school anyway. I got redressed and headed over to the girl's dorm rooms; I just wanted to make sure she made it in safely, but I had no idea where exactly her room was. I was overwhelmed with how strong her pull already was on me, and I let that guide me right to where she was, or just outside anyway. Her room was on the second floor and boys weren't allowed inside the building after curfew, so I climbed up the tree by her window, and used my super hearing to check on her.

"Oh my God, I can't believe Jacob Wolfe was actually talking to you" I heard the roommate say.

"Why, what's the big deal?" Vanessa asked with a shortness to her voice. _Maybe I did creep her out after all. _

"Are you kidding? He never talks to anyone besides his cousins; you are like the only girl that he's given the time of day."

"Gosh Tracy, it's only the first week of school, maybe he's just shy." Vanessa told her quickly. _I had to admit, I liked that she was defending me, even if she was way off._

"No way. His cousins have both been friendly and flirting with all the girls, I have Seth in my world history class, and he's the most popular kid in there." _Figures, he's going to end up in jail, I just know it._

_V_anessa kept peering out the window, almost as if she knew someone was watching her; but she was just a human, how would she be able to see me out here in the darkness. I stayed hidden behind a branch just in case.

"Earth to Van, hello? Vanessa, what are you looking at out there?" The roommate asked as Vanessa kept looking out the window in my direction. Maybe she could feel our pull too, as long as she didn't actually see me, I'd be Ok.

"Nothing. Look I'm really tired, I'm going to turn the lights off now." And with that, Vanessa closed the window curtains and the room went dark. I actually felt really bad for spying on her like that, she obviously sensed me for whatever reason, and I made her feel uncomfortable. I decided then that I wouldn't post myself in that tree again, unless there was some kind of real danger; but how much danger could a normal high school girl get into?

I jumped out of the tree and was disgusted with myself; I felt like one of those sickos that follows little girl's home at night. This was a high school girl and I was a grown man, this was so wrong. Why the hell did I have to imprint now? I continued to loath myself all the way back to my room, and it just made it worse that Seth and Embry were already back from the party and waiting for me.

"Where the Hell have you been?" Embry asked me as soon as I walked through the door.

"Yeah dude, what happened? You just disappeared on us." Seth asked

"Nothing. You guys looked like you were having fun, and I just wanted to get out of there." I said annoyed that I had to explain myself to them.

"HOLY CRAP! You imprinted, you dog you." Embry said out of the blue.

"Why would you say that?" I asked bitterly. I don't know why I was so angry, besides for the fact that I was undeniably attracted to a girl that couldn't be older than seventeen; yeah that was probably it.

"Are you kidding, I've seen enough imprints to recognize it when I see one. You're glowing man." Embry said seriously but in a teasing manner.

"Who is she?" Seth didn't wait for me to confirm, he just believed it right away.

I sighed knowing I couldn't really deny it, as soon as we were all wolves together they would see it in my mind anyway.

"Her name is Vanessa Mason, she's…"

"The chick in our Spanish class?" Embry asked excitedly "That's awesome man, she's hot"

"Again, illegal." I reminded them, yet again; and slightly upset that he was looking at her in that way.

"So what Jake? If she's your imprint, then nothing else matters. It's not like you're some jerk trying to take advantage of her or anything, and you're only 24, that's not that big of an age difference." Embry tried encouraging me.

"No Embry, he's only sixteen; stopped aging remember? This girl is actually technically older than him." Seth said, so I gave him a warning glare because he knew damn well that I didn't look at it that way. "Well emotionally and intellectually anyway." Seth added under his breath.

"She _is _pretty smart Jake." Embry agreed with Seth's last comment. I can't say that I was actually shocked that they had this opinion on the situation; they don't see any problems with dating these young girls.

"Yeah, and Edward was like a hundred and nine and he dated a seventeen…." Seth let his thought trail off. Of all the times I glared at him like I wanted to conflict bodily harm on him, he knew this time I meant it. Even Embry glared at him with anger in his eyes. But in truth, I legitimately didn't care about the Cullens anymore. As long as they didn't kill people and stayed away from me and my new gravity, they could live and drain as much deer as their still, ice cold, hearts desired. All of my anger and resentment floated away the second I realized my true place in this world, with Vanessa. That's not to say I wouldn't kill any of them if I ever saw them again, treaty ended when that leech bit Bella, so now they are just like all the rest of the bloodsuckers.

I laid awake all night just thinking about what this imprint meant in my life. I wasn't like Edward, I couldn't justify dating a high school student when I lived so much more life than a young innocent girl could possibly fathom. But that didn't mean I couldn't be in her life. I decided then that the best thing to do is just be her friend and protector until she was older, at least graduated. I would follow her to whatever collage she picked, and maybe we would get an apartment together, and marry a few years later, and start our family a year after that.

Ok, I seriously needed to get my head examined. I really just met this girl a few hours ago, and here I was planning our future. Now I felt like an over obsessed teen scribbling the name of my crush and drawing hearts around it. Even though _crush_ could never come close to defining my feelings for this girl that I didn't know.

The next morning, I woke up bright and early; my stomach was full of butterflies in anticipation of seeing her again. I got ready to go way earlier than necessary, so I started feeling antsy just sitting there listening to the minutes tick by.

Then the worried panic set in. How was I going to get this girl to like me, little alone be my friend? It's been a long time since having a female friend (Leah doesn't count, she's more of a sister to me) and that didn't end so well. But as long as _this_ friend didn't start associating with vampires, or worse dating one, then I'm sure we were going to be Ok. I mean we were made for each other, soul mates and all that; there was no way that history would repeat itself….Right?

I didn't wait for Seth and Embry to go to breakfast like I usually did, I just couldn't stand the thoughts running through my mind anymore. So I went to the cafeteria and was wrongfully thrilled to find Vanessa sitting alone. I didn't give myself a chance to let my over-thinking mind talk me out of approaching her.

"Hey Vanessa." I told her with a little more excitement than I intended.

"Hi Jacob, how are you this morning?" She seemed like she was surprised that I remembered her.

"Uh, good" I tried to be casual. I didn't really know what else to say so I just stood there like an idiot.

"Do you want to sit?" She asked me slowly.

"Yeah thanks" I said too quickly and sat just as quick.

"I don't date." She said out of the blue.

"Huh?" I asked thinking I missed something.

"All of the football players always ask me out all the time, but you're new this year so I thought I'd save you the effort." She said in a rush. Great, now I was going to hold a grudge against my teammates because I know they all have the hots for my girl, or I mean my friend.

"I wasn't going to ask you out actually." _I said truthfully, but her face turned a deep rose color as she blushed from embarrassment. Crap, I knew I was going to say the wrong thing._ "I mean, not that I wouldn't want to, because I do." _Crap Crap Crap_ "I mean, it's not that I don't think you're beautiful or anything" _I really needed to get a hold of myself_. "It's just that I'm not here to date anyone either, I'm just trying to stay focused on football and hopefully get a scholarship to college next year."

She seemed to feel better. "Well, you staying single is going to be difficult; all the girls around here would have a litter of your kids tomorrow if you'd give them the OK." _What an odd thing to say_; _not that werewolves produced litters or anything. But everything that came out of her mouth seemed to be a little strange, but it only made me _love_ her even more. Wonderful, now I'm using the L word._

"Well, they'll all get the hint after I turn them down a few times" I said referring to the girls that wanted to date me.

"You'd be surprised how persistent a teenage girl can be." She said with a smile

"Well you'd be surprised how stubborn I can be."

She bit her lower lip in the cutest way, and shook her head in disagreement. "I bet I could get you to do something you didn't want to, I'm pretty good at convincing people to give me what I want." She said in a joking manner, but I knew she was being completely honest and she was right, she could convince me of anything, saying no to her was impossible.

The first bell rang, and since we were going to the same class, (and there were a billion steel cables locking me to her) we walked together. Our hands unintentionally brushed against each other as we walked, and that same electric current from the first time we touched, passed between us again. She looked up at me questionably, but I didn't respond to her because I knew if she asked me about it, I would tell her everything, and then She would be horrified and run for the hills.

I sat behind her again, as I always would in that class, and her amazing aroma made it impossible for me to concentrate on anything else but her. But my focus was adverted when Embry shoved me in the side; I didn't even realize he was there, but if he shoved me like that again, I'd kick his ass.

"Jake, the teacher is asking you a question" Embry said quietly. _Oh. I guess I felt bad about the negative thoughts towards my best friend._

"I'm sorry Mr. Villa, had a rough game last night." Maybe it was wrong to play the jock card, but it usually worked.

"Well. All right then, Miss Mason, would you like to answer?" The teacher asked. Vanessa looked over her shoulder at me briefly, and smirked. It wasn't a stuck up kind of look, it was more of a friendly expression. _She did like me_ (as a friend of course).

Vanessa answered him in perfect Spanish, that I didn't understand, and then the teacher turned back to me.

"Did you get that Mr. Wolfe?" He asked me.

"Yeah" I lied.

Vanessa's shoulders were moving up and down in a strange way that frightened me; was she sick or something? But then I heard her muffled laughter as she covered her mouth with her hand. Oh I wish I was that hand so I could touch her perfect lips. _Yep, that would be the moron in me coming out again_. At least I made her laugh, though I wasn't exactly sure why.

After class was over, I stood and gathered my things and for once, there weren't any smart ass remarks from Embry before we left.

"Uh, Jake?" The most beautiful voice in the world asked

"Yeah Vanessa?" There was something about the way her name sounded coming off of my lips that just seemed wrong. She was far too beautiful and unique to have such a common name as Vanessa.

"Um, don't take this the wrong way, but I can tutor you if you need it." She asked me.

_Yes please "_What makes you think I need tutoring?" I asked with a sly smile.

"Trust me, you need it." She said teasingly.

"Ok, sure, that would be great. I have practice every day at two thirty, but any other time that you're available would be great." I tried really hard to not sound overly enthused.

"That's Ok, but I have a pretty full schedule, so how about…after practice, what time do you finish?"

I would quit right now just to study with her, but then I'd lose my scholarship. "Around five, that will give me enough time to get cleaned up before we meet."

"Sounds good, we'll have dinner." She said and my heart sped up. If I didn't know any better, I'd say she heard my racing heart, she seemed to be listening to something but then she added quickly "Dinner as friends."

"Yeah, for sure"

"And only twice a week, if you do it any more than that, you'll start to get burned out." She said and though I completely disagreed about the burned out part, I agreed. Any amount of time that I got to spend with Vanessa was amazing and would never be enough.

***What do you think so far? ****Please Review*******


	5. 20 Questions

**Changing Tides**

A/N: Ok, this one is a little long and mostly fluff, but they need to get to know each other better. I hope it's not boring. The first part of this chapter was inspired by a review from _Dawb_; I hope you like it. Thanks for those who review, I just wanted to let you know that I do read all of them and really appreciate each one. If anyone has any ideas for the story, I will definitely consider them.

Ch 5 – _Twenty Questions_

"Bronze" I said suddenly as Seth, Embry, and I were waiting in between plays during practice.

"What?" They both asked me at the same time.

"That's what color hair she has, bronze. I couldn't put a name to it before." I said proud of myself for my realization. Seth and Embry rolled their eyes.

"FALL IN BOYS!" The coach yelled to everyone, so we all ran to him and took a knee.

"Ok, so here's the deal; our offence isn't going to improve unless we get some new players. The assistant coach and I have been doing some scouting and came up with a few possibilities that we are considering. But we do have a new kicker, and I don't want anyone giving this new player any problems." The coach told us.

Embry, Seth, and I, all let our mouths drop as the new kicker walked onto the field.

"Leah?" Seth said upset.

Leah smirked at us then went to stand by the coach.

"This is Leah Harrison, and she is the best damn kicker I have ever seen; in fact she could probably out play any of you for your positions. If anyone gives her any problems whatsoever, you will be off the team faster than you can say _Nationals_." The coach threatened, and then he told us to return to what we were doing.

"You guys suck" Leah said quietly to the three of us as she walked by.

"Man, why does she have to ruin everything?" Seth complained.

"Well boys I gotta tell you." The coach said to us as everyone else started practicing again. "If you would have told me that your female cousin was this good at football, I would have never believed it, but she is truly amazing. I'm just glad she decided to send me a tape of her playing; otherwise I wouldn't have even considered it. Is your whole family as athletic as you four?" The coach asked.

"We just have good genes. But I doubt anyone else will come, all of our other cousins graduated already." I told him hoping that the werewolf involvement on this team was going to end with four.

After practice, we took our time going to the locker rooms so we could talk to Leah alone.

"What the hell Leah?" Seth asked her bitterly

"What? You boys are going to get college scholarships out of this and actually make something of yourselves, why can't I? Besides, I got fired from my waitressing job." Leah explained.

"Well you can't throw people's food in their laps just because they are rude to you Leah." Embry teased.

"Hey, that jerk asked for it, he deserved to have his soup in his lap after what he said to me." She defended herself, maybe Embry wasn't joking after all.

"You only worked there for a couple of days Lee" I said to her. She shrugged like she didn't care, and I'm sure she didn't.

"It's not fair; you're too old to be here anyway." Seth complained. I shoved his head to the side. "Owe, jerk."

"We're all too old to be here stupid." I told him.

"No, you guys stopped aging at sixteen and I was fifteen, so were cool. Leah was nineteen." Seth rebutted. "And why did you have to use dad's first name as your last name anyway?" He asked his sister.

"Ahh Seth, you're just pissed that you didn't think of that instead of the dumb name you picked." Embry teased.

"ClearRiver is not dumb; it's closer to a real traditional Native name than any of the ones you dwebs picked." Seth defended himself.

"Whatever. I have somewhere infinitely more important to be." I told them as I headed in to take a shower. "Patrolling at eleven!" I yelled back to them.

"Where is he going?" I heard Leah ask

"He has a date with his imprint." Embry told her.

"When the heck did he imprint?" Leah asked annoyed that no one told her sooner.

I was happy when I finally got out of hearing range from them. I really didn't care to hear them explain my life to Leah, and I didn't have the patience to tell them _again_ that I wasn't going to date her while she was in high school. I showered quickly and dressed as fast as possible.

It was ten to five, and thanks to our little wolf pack pow wow, I was running late. I ran as quick as _humanly_ possible to the spot where I was supposed to meet Vanessa for our study session, and was glad to see that I was there before her. I didn't want her to have to wait too long for me. As soon as I sat on the grassy hill, she walked up to me, and sat down beside me.

"Hey." She said smiling at me.

"Hey" I said smiling right back.

"Ok, first of all, what do you have the most trouble with?" She asked me, but once again I found myself lost in the way her lips moved.

"Huh?"

"What is the hardest part of Spanish for you?" She asked. She was being all business.

"Uh, I guess everything." I said honestly hoping she wouldn't think I was too stupid.

She went over pronunciations by repeating certain words that I was completely off on, and she explained the proper way to use words in sentences. She was very serious the whole time, almost as if she was my teacher and I was her student. After about two hours of studying we realized we were hungry, so we decided to stop for the evening and get some dinner. She said the cafeteria was fine, but I really didn't want to have to suffer through a rubbery mystery meat dish, so I called a cab and we went to a diner. I considered Italian, but I didn't want her to think that I was trying to romance her, and I knew it would make her uncomfortable.

"So what are you going to get?" I asked her after we looked at the menu for a few minutes.

"Uhh, I'm not sure. Maybe the two egg omelet."

"Breakfast for dinner?" I asked her

"I love eggs for dinner, well, I just love eggs anytime. That was the one food that my mom could eat when she was pregnant with me, so I guess I've liked them since before I was born." She said with a smile. God, I loved her smile.

"Eggs are good, but I'm more of a steak guy."

"Are you really going to get steak at a diner?" She asked me as if the idea repulsed her.

"Believe it or not, some of the best steak I ever had was from diners." I told her honestly. With all of the traveling and truck stops that I've been to, diner food was really all I ate for years.

"Ok then, now I have to try it." She said and closed her menu.

We both ordered the steak dinner, and I was shocked when she ordered hers rare. I don't know why I was surprised, but for some reason I thought of her as a _vegetarian_. (But so glad she's not.) There aren't many girls that order their meat rare like that, and as much as I didn't want to admit it to myself, I found it really attractive. It was probably just my animalistic side coming out.

So, what's your family like?" I asked her trying to make small talk as we waited for our food.

She thought for a moment, and then smiled at whatever she was thinking of. "My family lives in New York, but we're not from there; we've only lived there for a couple of years. My dad is a doctor and my mom is an attorney."

"Wow, that's…cool" No wonder why she wears such expensive clothes. "Do you have any siblings?" I asked her.

"Nope. But my dad's family is pretty close, and my uncles and aunts are all like my best friends." She said with another smile. "How about you, what's your family like?"

"Uh…Mom died when I was little, and my dad died this past summer."

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry." She said while holding her hands over her face and tears pooled in her eyes. She was so beautiful.

"No, it's Ok. My sister and her husband have stepped up and are taking care of things. It was my dad that really wanted me to come here and play football, so I did, and my cousins followed me here."

"Do you have a picture?" It made me so happy that she wanted to see what my dad looked like; I really wish she could have met him before he passed, he would have loved her. I pulled out a picture that was taken several years ago, which I had with me the whole time I was away. It was of the two of us.

"Ahh, that's sweet. You look….exactly the same as you do now." She flipped over the picture to see if there was a date on the back, and there was, so I grabbed it away from her quickly before she could read it.

"Uh…it was taken last year before my dad got sick." I put the picture away quickly but she looked at me suspiciously.

"Why is it dated eight years ago?" Damn, she did see it.

"That wasn't the date; it was the street address where we were living at the time." I hated lying to her but it was necessary for now. She looked like she wasn't buying my story, but she let it go anyway.

"Here you go." The waitress came and brought us our food

"Wow, I'm actually impressed." Vanessa said while looking at her food.

"I take it that you don't frequent many diners." I guessed

"Well, my mom is a really good cook and so is my grandmother, so we don't usually eat in many restaurants. My mom actually hates diners; she said the food is unhealthy and is liable to give someone a heart attack. I guess when she was in school, her and her dad ate nothing but diner food before she forced him to let her cook, so she has a grudge against them." Great I picked the perfect place, I'm such a schmuck.

"I'm sorry; we could have gone somewhere else." I told her

"No, no, I like this; it's fun. Actually, this taste really good."

"So you said you didn't grow up in New York, so where did you grow up then?" I asked her

"Ugh, all over. My dad and his family always moved around a lot and when my parents got married, they just moved around with them."

"Really why?" I asked her

"Because they were running from a vampire gang." She said seriously.

I just stared at her dumbfounded, but then she started laughing. "Jake, I'm kidding."

Not funny.

"Uh, yeah hilarious" I said trying to make my tone as light as possible.

"No, they just like to move around; maybe they get bored living in the same place or something." Vanessa explained.

"Do you still see your mom's family?" I asked her

"Well, I've actually never met her family. She left home after high school to marry my dad, and I guess she never looked back. I don't know much about them really, she doesn't talk about them often."

"Ok, what's your favorite color?" I asked her

"Red. What's yours?" She asked.

I looked deep into her chocolate eyes and said "Brown. What do you like to do for fun?"

"Are we playing twenty questions?" She asked.

I really just wanted to know everything about her. "Yes, so you have to answer."

"Ok, but you'll probably think it's stupid"

_Not possible_ "Oh come on, how bad can it be?" I asked her

"Well, I love anything out doors, like hiking and camping, and hunting…"

"Hunting?" I asked surprised

"Yeah, my whole family loves to go on these big camp outs in the mountains, and we go hunting and fishing and all that." She said enthusiastically. She is definitely my kind of girl.

"Why would I think that's stupid?" I asked her.

"Well, that's not the part I was talking about…I like to rebuild cars."

_WHAT! _"No you don't." I said with a disbelieving smile.

"See? Guys always have that reaction when I tell them that. It's like they think it's impossible for a girl to like that sort of thing." She said quickly.

"No, that's not what I meant. It's just that, I love rebuilding cars and I think that's great that you do too. How did you get into something like that?"

"My dad and aunt are both passionate about all things with engines. Of course my dad just likes to make them go as fast as possible, and my aunt is actually the one who likes building them from scratch."

I could definitely hang with her family.

"That's really cool" I knew we were made for each other. "Ok, back to my 20 questions, how many have I asked so far?"

"Uh, six" She answered me.

"Do you have any pets?"

"No, but I really want to get a dog" _God I love her_ "But my parents are thoroughly against it." Oh well, they won't know anyway.

"What's your favorite animal?"

"Mountain lion" She said quickly with a smile. I was really hoping she would say wolf, but that will come with time.

"What's your favorite subject in school?"

"History"

"Mine too actually." I guess I liked history so much because I grew up listening to all our ancient tribal legends, which I later found out were facts. "What's your favorite month of the year?"

"September. My mom and I were both born in that month."

Great, Virgos just like Bella. Oh well, she is so much more amazing than Bella ever was.

"Favorite number?"

"24" I'm sure that it was just a coincidence that her favorite number was my football jersey number, but then again maybe not. I hope not.

"What's kind of music do you like?"

"I like all music, but I grew up playing the piano, so I'll say classical."

"Favorite song?"

"You wouldn't know it. My dad wrote me a lullaby when I was a baby, it's absolutely beautiful and it's the only song that makes me feel better when I'm down or have bad dreams."

"So you're dad is a car building, song writing, doctor?"

"Is that one of the twenty questions?"

"Sure."

"Yeah. My grandpa is a doctor, so my dad has been around all that medical stuff for years, so it just comes easily to him. But music is his passion, and cars are just a hobby."

"And what about your mom?

"Well, she's a whole other story. She isn't musical at all, and she hates cars. She likes to read a lot and her dad was a police officer, so she loves the law; I guess that's why she became a lawyer."

"So your parents don't have a lot in common then?"

"I guess not, but they are sickly in love. It's hard to even be in the same room with them sometimes, they're always holding each other in some way. My mom isn't musical, but she loves the music my dad plays and they both love hunting and all that."

"Why don't you date?" I didn't even think before I asked that question, it just sort of popped out of my mouth, and I immediately regretted it.

"I just don't want to get involved with anyone when I know it can't go anywhere." She said but refusing to look me in the eye.

"Why couldn't it go anywhere?" Now I was confused. She was just a normal teenage girl, why would she worry about a relationship not going anywhere.

"My family, we're different. We don't live like most families, you know with the whole moving around thing. I just don't want to form any kind of real emotional ties when I know I won't be staying anywhere long enough for it to really progress."

"You'll be graduated in a year, so you can stay wherever you want." I told her.

"No, I have to stay with my family. Like I said, we're really close and we don't separate very often."

"But you're separated from them now?"

"Yeah well, I never went to school before, I was always home schooled. Last year I told my parents that I wanted to try a real school, so they let me come here; but my dad hates me being so far from them, he's way too overprotective. If it wasn't for my mom and grandfather ganging up on him, he would have never let me come. He thought that if I really wanted to go to school, than I should go to a normal school close by them, but I just needed some independence. But as soon as I graduate were planning on moving to Europe for a few years."

Ok, I guess I could move to Europe with her, but I don't think her parents would like that very much. I'm going to need the rest of the school year to figure out a way to make her stay with me, or for me to go with her, because there is no way I could stand being on a different continent than her.

"So college is out then?"

"I'm not sure. I guess I could go to college in Europe if I really wanted to, but I might just get a job somewhere and just skip it. I like school, but I think two years is enough. My parents are really protective of me, but not in a conventional way; I'm not used to having my day planned for me and being on a time schedule, I guess there is just too many rules when it comes to school."

"Well having a job won't be any easier."

"Well I was thinking more of volunteering or something. My family has a lot of money so working for financial gain isn't really necessary and with all the traveling we do, it's hard to get a good job anyway. We do a lot of habitat for humanity stuff and move around to different third world countries so my dad and grandpa can work in their medical clinics."

"What does your mom do, I'm sure those places don't really have a need for lawyers?"

"No, when we're doing that, she just helps with other things. But when we were in Uganda for a year, she helped pass a few different laws."

"That's neat. So graduate high school, then Europe huh?"

"That's the plan. So what college are you planning on going to?" She asked.

She started asking me as many questions as I asked her, and before we knew it, it was ten o'clock. We had been talking for three hours strait, and I could have kept going all night, but we had to get back because we were already running late for curfew.

After the cab dropped us off at the school gates, I walked her to the building that her room was in. We said goodnight then I hurried back to my room. We got demerits for every minute we were late for curfew, so I had to get there quick. All of the lights went dark around campus for the night, and my little pack and I, snuck out of our rooms and went patrolling.

***Too long and boring? I think we all know where this is going, but if you have any other good ideas for the story, let me know. Action coming soon. ****Please Review*******


	6. Monsters

**Changing Tides**

Ch 6 - _Monsters_

_This is so weird_. – Seth thought.

_Yeah there are a bunch of trails from a couple of weeks ago, but nothing since then._ – Leah agreed.

_Keep your heads down; we don't want to miss anything_. – I ordered.

_Man, if we don't kill any vamps soon, I'm going to go crazy. _– Embry said, mostly to himself.

_Em, it's a good thing there aren't any vamps around,_ seems _people around here are pretty safe right_ _now_. – Seth told Embry.

_No way, I agree with Embry. I need to rip something up_. – Leah said.

_Dude, that's really strange what Vanessa said about the 'vampire gang' thing_ – Embry thought after hearing about it in my mind.

_None of your business, Embry_. – I told him completely annoyed.

_Well, that is pretty weird Jake; I wonder what that was about_. – Seth commented.

_It was just a bad joke, nothing more. Don't go around making up trouble where there isn't any_. – Leah defended me.

_Thanks Lee_ – I said sincerely, even though I really had the same question myself.

All of our patrols have pretty much been uneventful, which I guess was a good thing. But I had to agree that it was strange that the vamp activity seemed to end around the time the school year started.

The next day was Friday, so I didn't have class with Vanessa, but we did have our first real game of the season, so I knew I would at least see her there. I really hoped the coach would get mad at us again, and force us to watch half time; I'd really like to see Vanessa move her body like she did at the scrimmage. _There I go again_.

My pack and I all went to lunch together, like we usually do, but this time we had Leah with us. Leah was lucky enough to get a single room, because everyone else in the girl dorms already had roommates; which I guess is a good thing, that way it would be easier for her to sneak out at night to patrol.

"Hey gorgeous, you gonna put me out of my misery and say yes to a date?" Some guy walked up to Leah and asked when we sat to eat.

"No." Leah replied without even looking up from her food.

"Oh come on baby, make my day." The guy said while tucking a stand of hair behind her ear.

Seth looked like he was about to rip the guy apart, but Leah didn't give him a chance. She stood up and grabbed the guy's arm and shoved it behind his back forcefully, locking him in place. "How's that? Is your day made?" She said aggressively to him while he cringed in pain.

"Yes, I'm so sorry." He cried out, so she let him go. "Jeeze, I didn't know you played for the other team. D!ke"

Leah wasn't offended by his derogatory comment; in fact she smiled at it. Leah of course was not a lesbian, but she shared my opinion on not wanting to date high school kids so it only benefitted her for the boys to think they weren't her _type_.

"Hey guys, I'll talk to you later." Leah said abruptly, and got up and left. We watched her as she walked to the other side of the cafeteria, and I was horrified to see her sit down with Vanessa and start talking to her like they were old friends. I knew she recognized her from my thoughts, but what could she possible be saying to her? _- Hey you're the chick Jake's in love with, oh yeah and we're all werewolves. -_ Come on Leah, just leave her alone please.

I couldn't stand it, so I got up and walked over to them.

"Hey Lee, hey Nessie." I said to them as they looked up at me.

"Nessie?" Vanessa asked me confused.

"Oh, sorry. I usually call people nick names for short. Do you mind?...Cause if you do, I won't call you that." I said quickly.

"No, I don't mind. But usually people call me Van for short; I never even heard of Nessie before, except when referring to the Loch Ness Monster."

"Oh, well…I" I stumbled not really sure what to say; the last thing I wanted to do was compare her to a mythical creature.

"I like _Nessie,_ its unique" Leah jumped in. I knew I liked Leah.

"Ok, well, I don't really care what people call me, a name is just a name; in fact my mom calls me nudger, so what difference does it make?" She shrugged, but for some reason I felt like she actually liked the nick name that I came up with on a whim.

I knew I would never call her Vanessa again.

"So are you excited about the game tonight?" Nessie asked me after I sat with her and Leah. Apparently, Leah just had the class before lunch with Nessie, and they hit it off. I was grateful Leah befriended her, I knew she was safe with Leah watching out for her when I couldn't, and for some reason I couldn't kick the feeling that she was a danger magnet. But that was probably just my paranoia, mixed with projecting Bella's worst attribute onto her. Bella was a stupid girl that hung around vampires; Nessie was way too smart to do something as dangerous as that.

"Yeah, should be fun." I lied; nothing about playing football with a bunch of humans was fun. I just wanted this year over with so I could move on with my life; hopefully with her. "Are you excited to be cheering?"

"Well, I like to dance, but besides that…" She shrugged.

"Well, I really like watching you dance." Ok that was dumb even for me. Leah rolled her eyes and Nessie's face turned bright red. Crap, I had no idea how to get out of that one.

"Well, I really like watching you play football." Ness said after a moment, but her cheeks stayed the same crimson color. She was so amazing

When lunch was over, I walked her to her next class and we agreed to meet up after the game.

The game wasn't much different than the scrimmage, a stalemate. We finally scored in the later part of the first half, when Leah was brought in to kick. We were going to have to get a better offensive side if college scouts were going to take notice in our team. It didn't really matter to me anymore though, because if Ness was going to be in Europe, then so would I. But half time made the whole ridicules game worth it, because we were forced to watch the cheerleaders again.

Nessie was breathtaking.

We won our game again, barley thanks to Leah, so there was another party to celebrate. Since it was a Friday and a game night, curfew for seniors wasn't until midnight so we knew we couldn't go patrolling until after two in the morning. Leah, Embry, Ness and I went to the party together but Seth had other plans; I would keep my cell phone on incase he needed to get bailed out of jail, _moron_.

We didn't want to go to the party, but we decided to at least show our faces for a little while again. The quarterback's parents were still gone, so the party was at his house, just like the last one. My _friend_ Nessie and I spent the whole time together, where Embry and Leah went their own way. I asked her to dance, because I knew how much she loved it, and six songs later we finally took a break from dancing. I never enjoyed this sort of scene before coming with her, but she was the most beautiful creature to ever exist and seeing her sway her body to the music and actually wanting to be there with me, was unlike anything else in the world.

"Jake" Embry said as quietly as possible after coming over to Ness and me.

"What?" I asked him annoyed; Nessie seemed concerned at the worried look on Embry's face.

"We have some…_people_ we need to…_talk _to outside." Embry said leadingly. _Damn it_.

"Ok" I turned to Nessie. "Um, I'll be right back. Will you stay here and wait for me?"

"What's wrong?" She asked

"Nothing, it's just some guys giving Leah some trouble, I'll be right back." Without thinking, I kissed her on the cheek, and ran out with Embry.

Leah was waiting for us outside watching to make sure the vamps weren't trying to come near the humans, and then we all raced into the trees to phase. I looked behind me one more time to make sure Nessie stayed inside, and thankfully, she did.

_Why are they here now?_ – I thought mostly to myself

_Oh, I don't know, could it be the huge buffet of humans way out here at this isolated house tucked into the forest?_ – Leah thought sarcastically.

_Yeah Leah, I got that. But we haven't come across any fresh trails since being here_. – I told her

_Too bad Seth's not here, I know we don't really need him, but he's going to hate missing this_. – Embry thought.

_My little brother doesn't enjoy killing vamps as much as we do Em; he was actually friends with those golden eyed freaks_. – Leah disagreed with Embry.

_Head in the game guys, we're here_. – I told them.

"No, no, no! I Thought I was ok out here." The vamp said while putting his hands in front of himself as if he could actually stop our advance.

"Please? I didn't go by the school, I know of the warning to stay away from the hybrid; I swear I won't touch her." The vamp added quickly while bracing himself for our attack.

_What the hell is he talking about?_ – Leah thought.

_Who cares? He's here to kill humans, let's take him out_. – Embry thought quickly.

I hesitated, because for some reason the whole _hybrid_ comment worried me. I seriously thought about phasing back to human and forcefully making him explain; but Embry was right, he was probably just trying to side track us so he could get to the humans.

_Attack!_ – I ordered them

It was over quickly, I didn't even join in on the attack because I knew Lee and Em had it under control, and they loved doing it so much.

_Em, phase back and start a fire, but keep it small_. – I instructed, and then ran back to where I stashed my clothes.

Leah ran to a separate area to get changed, and we both went back into the party.

"Hey, sorry. Did I miss anything?" I asked Nessie. We were only gone for less than ten minutes, but I still hated having to leave her.

"Nope, is Leah Ok?" She asked concerned.

"Yeah, Leah can handle herself, but she's my cousin so I have to defend her."

"Do you mind if we take off? I'm pretty tired of dancing." She asked me.

"Yeah, for sure. It's only ten or so, we still have a few hours until curfew; do you want to go somewhere else, or are you ready to go back to the dorm?"

Nessie strangely looked outside before answering me. "No, lets hang out some more, but just not here."

"Cool" I called a cab.

Embry and Leah decided to stay at the party just in case another vamp showed up, but they didn't mind me leaving.

Ness and I were actually pretty hungry so we grabbed a late snack and sat for a while just talking. We kept laughing at the stupidest things and somehow, much to my dismay, we got on the topic of science fiction.

"If you could be any super natural monster what would you be?" She asked me.

"Uh…We played twenty questions last time."

"So what? This is in honor of the coming Halloween festivities." She giggled

"Ok, uh…the incredible hulk." I said for no other reason than just not wanting to be honest on this particular subject. "You?"

"Well when I was little, I always wanted to be a vampire." _Oh God!_ "But now I switched teams and think it would be fun to go as the teen wolf."

_Uhhhh?_

"Why?" I asked her seriously confused and started to panic. Did she know what I was? I thought back on many of her unusual comments, and started thinking that somehow she knew about vampires and werewolves, but how?

"Oh, it's not a big deal, why do you look so serious? My uncle Met is like obsessed with all things Dracula, and so I thought it would be funny to be a werewolf for Halloween one year as a joke. Let's just say he wasn't laughing; in fact neither were my parents. They were all just as serious as you're being right now." She said teasingly and playfully nudged me.

I just stared at her, trying to control the upset feelings running straight through my core.

"Not a big lover of monsters?" She guessed.

"It's just that they always used to give me bad dreams." I sounded like a pansy, but it was the truth. "Why do you like them so much? I mean apart from your uncle's obsession."

"I'm not sure." She said looking away from me. "I guess because I think it would be cool to be immortal if you could stay with the one you love." She said quietly. "Would you choose to become immortal…if you could?"

_Calm down Jake, this is all just a stupid coincidence. Many humans have thoughts like these, you're over analyzing things_. But it was hard to get those paranoid thoughts out of my head, no matter how many silent pep talks I give myself.

"Um, it depends on how you become immortal. I guess if you were _born_ immortal it would be fine."

"Not many monsters are born immortal. And if you had to wait and fall in love with a fellow naturally born immortal, then you would be waiting for a long time and not have very many potential mates to choose from." She actually seemed serious; I was really going to lose it.

"But choosing to become a monster is like choosing to kill the person you once were." I said undesirably thinking about Bella.

"Why is that?" She almost seemed offended.

I really wanted to change the subject. "Oh come on, this is all rubbish anyway. Let's get back to the dorms, it's getting late."

Later that night after patrolling for a few hours, I laid in bed awake, just over-thinking everything she said to me. I must have fallen asleep at some point, because I found myself back at the clearing in Forks where we fought the newborn vamps. Bella was standing there, but she was different than I ever saw her before, her skin was white and stone like, and her eyes were the same golden color as the rest of the Cullen's. We were alone in the field, just the two of us, and though I didn't love her the same way I used to, I still felt a connection to her.

"Bella? What are you doing here?" I asked her. I hadn't seen her since her wedding day, so seeing her as a vampire was a new experience for me.

"I just wanted to see you Jake, you're my best friend and I miss you." She said with a warm smile, which was strange because nothing about vampires were warm.

"You can't be here, the treaty is broken and Sam's pack will come and kill you." I said actually concerned for her safety.

"I just wanted to make sure that we were still friends, and you were ok. I love you Jake, and you'll always be important to me, no matter what." She told me with the same kind soul, which she always had, sparkling from inside her sparkly granite body.

"Look, I still care about you too, but things are different now and you can't be here." I told her starting to get really worried that Sam's pack was going to come and kill her, and in that moment, I believed I would actually stand in his way and protect her. _Wow, how could I change so much, and why_? Only a few days ago, I would have killed her myself.

Just then, Nessie showed up in the clearing. My first thought was to shield her from the vampire, even though I knew Bella wasn't a threat to her. But then Bella smiled at her, and Nessie smiled back.

"I don't get it, do you know her?" I asked Ness, but then I looked closer and saw that her skin was sparkling just like Bella's, and her eyes were the same golden color.

"Nooo! What happened?" I cried franticly knowing Nessie was now a vampire too.

"Jake, you're going to live forever, so I wanted to make someone immortal that you can love forever." Bella said with a proud smile.

I screamed out in horror, but Nessie ran over to me, and wrapped her cold hard arms around me. "Jake, please, I love you so much. Please, please don't push me away? We can always be together now, you don't have to stop phasing to grow old with me; we'll live forever, together."

I stopped crying, and looked deep into her now golden eyes and saw her beautiful soul, just as perfect as it ever was, and I knew in that moment that I would love her no matter what. My love was completely unconditional, and I would take her in any form she chose to be in.

I woke up slowly; I was covered in sweat and my heart was racing. I knew the whole time that it was just a dream, but it felt so real. I was sure it was the result of the strange conversation Nessie and I had earlier, but it still confused me and scared the hell out of me.

***I hope that made sense. ****Please Review*******


	7. Breaking Rules

**Changing Tides**

Ch 7 – _Breaking Rules_

Over the next few weeks there were some little, but significant changes that took place.

Or football team got five new offensive players, who were all really good, and actually really cool guys as well. We won every game so far and are currently undefeated.

My pack and Sam's pack back home, were on full guard and research mode. The vamp that we killed the night after our first game spoke of a hybrid of some sort, which worried both me and Sam, so we wanted to get to the bottom of that. But there really wasn't any information to go by, so we planned on capturing the next vamp that we came across and get some information out of it. Obviously there had to be a reason why there was no vamp activity in or around the school, this part of the country was usually frequented by vamps because of its fall and winter clouded weather. The vampire said something about there being a rule to stay away from the school due to this hybrid creature, so we stayed on high alert even on school grounds. We had no idea what kind of hybrid we were dealing with, but any mixing of monster species had to be bad; especially if a vampire was afraid of it.

But the most important change came in my own personal life, and it had to do with my relationship with Nessie. We didn't talk about monsters again; in fact I like to pretend that whole conversation never happened. But we did become extremely close in a short amount of time; it felt like we knew each other forever and I guess with us being soul mates and all, we have. We spent every free minute we had together, when we weren't in school, practice, or curfew enforced separate dorm rooms, we were joined at the hip.

Everyone assumed we were a couple, and we most certainly weren't dating anyone else, but our official status remained _best_ friends. I guess I couldn't really blame people for assuming we were more than friends, because friends don't usually hold hands, and share food, and sit on the other's lap; at least not the way we did it (Well she sits on my lap, not the other way around). We always had some kind of physical contact when we were together, she would lie against me, or my arm would be around her, or even my hand on her knee. When we shared food, it was always with the same fork, or ice cream on the same cone, and we tended to feed each other a lot. We did everything a normal couple would do, except for the kissing and things that went beyond that.

"So, we need to go shopping soon" Nessie told me as we were eating lunch one day. I learned over the past few weeks that she loves to shop.

"Ugh, why?" I pouted, but I knew my complaining didn't bother her, actually I think she got a level of enjoyment out of torturing me.

"The homecoming dance is coming and I want us to coordinate." She said with a smirk

"I never asked you to any dance." I said teasingly

"Yeah but we both know you're going to take me anyway, you don't know how to tell me no." She said knowing me all too well.

"But why do we have to coordinate? How about I just pick you up, and we can just be surprised on how the other looks." I suggested, trying to get out of shopping.

"Now way, you'd show up in one of those t-shirts that have a tux print on it and sneakers. Besides my aunt always says 'fashion coordination is key to looking your best'." She said with a triumphant smile knowing I would do whatever she wanted.

"Hey you shouldn't knock a good t-shirt, they're actually really stylish." I said to her in my defense. She just rolled her eyes and smiled.

"Here try this." She took a big spoonful of whatever she was eating and put it in my mouth.

"Ugh, that's disgusting!" I said practically gagging.

"Oh good, I thought I was the only one who thought that." She said before cracking up.

"You are really going to pay for that one." I told her before dipping my finger in my pudding and smearing it on her perfect nose.

"Hey, I didn't get you all messy; that's not fair." I thought she was going to retaliate by pouring her drink on me or putting her nasty mystery food on my face, but instead, she tackled me to the ground and wiped the chocolate on her nose off on my cheeks and forehead. I was actually surprised and impressed with how strong she was, and I almost had to use a little extra strength to restrain her, _almost_.

I rolled her over so now I was on top of her, (though I didn't put any of my weight on her) and tickled her sides as she laughed so hard that no sound came out.

"Hey, get a room" Embry teased as he walked by us. If he were anyone else, I would have kicked his ass for being so rude, but Embry knew the kind of relationship we had, and knew me well enough to know that I would never let it get that far, especially out in a public place.

I rolled over on my back, and she climbed on top of me so she was sitting on my stomach with one leg on each side me.

"So when are we going shopping?" She asked casually as the chocolate started to dry on both of our faces.

"Why do you even ask? Just tell me when to be there, and I will."

"You are so whipped." She joked

"I can't help it, you have my brain all jumbled up most of the time." I said honestly

"That can be a good thing." She said then she lay down on top of me, and ran her fingers in my hair before pressing her lips to mine. It was just a quick kiss but it was still a kiss, a real, electrical, sparks flying, kiss. Her lips were so soft and sweet, and the delicious way they tasted had nothing to do with the chocolate.

"Miss Mason, Mr. Wolfe, that's inappropriate." A teacher said as he passed by. (_Oh, don't I know it - _By kissing Ness, I just broke my own rule.)

We didn't have time to feel awkward, she moved away from me just as the bell rang, and with that she walked to her class without saying a word. I usually walked her to class, but she was gone so quickly that I would have thought she departed at inhuman speed, but I just figured she wanted to get away from me in _that _moment.

I hated that it happened, I hated that I crossed _that_ line, I hated that I didn't try harder to stop it, but most of all, I hated that I wanted to do it again so bad that I knew I would never be strong enough to resist her if she wanted to kiss me again. This was wrong; I couldn't be with her more than a friend, at least not yet, because she was just too young. But at the same time, how was I supposed to deny my imprint of something she really wanted, it just wasn't possible.

I was having such an internal struggle in my mind as to what I was supposed to do, that I didn't even notice that the tardy bell rang and now I was standing alone out in the courtyard in the middle of campus. I decided I'd rather skip the whole class period than walk in late, so I went out to the surrounding forest to run off some steam.

The more I ran, the more confused I became. I wanted to be with her completely, more than anything, but I also wanted to tell her my whole truth first, she deserved that. But she was seventeen, and I hated the fact that a disgusting leech took advantage of Bella at seventeen, so how could I justify doing the same thing to Nessie. I worried that if she learned the truth about me it would scare her off, or maybe make her even more determined to be with me the way Bella did with Edward. And I didn't understand why I kept thinking about Bella and the disgusting Cullen's again all the time. It was like the closer I got to Ness, the more I thought about them as if they were tied together in some way, but that was ridicules, how could she be connected to them?

After I ran for a couple hours, I got back to school just in time to change for practice but as I approached the locker room, Ness was leaning against the wall waiting for me.

"Where have you been?" She asked in an accusatory tone.

"Uh…out running." The truth was always best, even if I kept it vague.

"In the woods?" She _was_ upset at something.

"Yeah?" I said like it was a question. I had no idea why she would be upset with me running in the woods.

"It's against the rules to go out into the forest without a teacher." She said like she was scolding me.

"Well, no one saw me." I said carefully hoping her angry mood would pass

"That doesn't make it right. Rules are made for a reason." She said forcefully. Either she was really mad at me for breaking the rules, or she was upset about our kiss and was using this as an excuse to express that. I'm guessing it's the latter.

"Aren't you the one who said that you hated living by all the rules at this school?" I asked her wishing she would drop this rules façade and get to the real issue.

"That doesn't mean they should be ignored. The forest is dangerous, there are things out there that could really hurt someone or worse." Her tone started softening "Look, I've spent a lot of time in the woods with my family, and there are just so many things out there that you shouldn't find yourself alone with."

Was she really just worried about me, is that what this really was about? "Sweetie, I promise, I can take care of myself." I tried assuring her, but that seemed to just make her upset again.

"Don't be cocky Jake, you have no idea what kind of creatures lurk in the wilderness." She said coldly

"Really? And you do?" I almost thought this little tiff was funny. She was actually worried about a bear or mountain lion attacking me, if she only knew the truth she'd never worry about me again; though it did make me feel good that she cared enough to worry.

"Why are you smirking, this isn't funny." She said while glaring at me

"Ness, I'm fine, I promise." I said trying to end the conversation, but she narrowed her eyes at me, then turned and walked away. We never parted with one of us being upset at the other before; actually we have never been upset with each other at all and I hated the feeling, especially because I wasn't even exactly sure why she was upset in the first place.

We didn't talk again until Spanish class the next day, and it was pure torture being away from her that long.

I got to class before she did, and when she finally did come into the room we made eye contact for a brief moment, but then she looked away just as quick. We were doing partner work, so Embry automatically got up to switch seats with Nessie, like he always did when we worked in pairs, but she didn't stand.

"Uhh?" Embry just stood in the isle next to her seat while she ignored him.

"Nessie, come on please?" I said quietly, she knew exactly what I meant, so she huffed and gave her seat to Embry.

She slammed her books on the table and moved Embry's chair to the furthest opposite side of the table that she could, sat and turned away from me.

"Babe? You know I can't do this stuff without you." I said with a smile trying to make her feel guilty for her cold shoulder.

"Maybe if you would actually study instead of goofing off all the time, you would have this down by now." She said coldly, but I could see a smile playing at the corners of her beautiful lips.

I reached down and grabbed the leg of her chair, pulling her closer to me.

"Are you going to stay out of the woods?" She asked dryly

_Nope_

"Why? I told you I'm Ok, why don't you believe me?" I asked her

"I just don't want to lose you from something that I could have prevented." She looked up into my eyes finally. "I don't want to ever lose you, and the woods scare me." She said quietly like she wanted to cry.

"Honey, you won't ever lose me, I'm here with you and I'm not going anywhere." I promised her. I wasn't exactly sure at what point I started calling my _friend_ Honey and Sweetie and the occasional Babe, but she didn't seem to mind. She leaned into me and I wrapped my arms around her securely.

"Mr. Wolfe, this is not social hour, back to work please." The teacher ordered me.

***This one really was a filler chapter to see their relationship progress; the next chapter will bring some realizations. As always ****Please Review****. I get a lot of hits, but not many take the couple of sec's to actually review. It means a lot, even if it's just a word or two (But the more the better). I may or may not, already have a few chapters finished, so the more reviews I get, the faster I'll publish. **_**Thanks**_*****


	8. Vampires and Other Opponents

**Changing Tides**

_A/N__: Ok, so if you've read my other story __**Equinox**__ and it's sequel __**Solstice**__, than you know that I've liked this theme lately. (You'll understand what I mean as you read this chapter) Sorry if you hate it, but to be fair, it's in the description on the first chapter. *Thanks for all of the great reviews for Ch7 - I hope you all review again for this one.*_

Ch 8 – _Vampires and Other Opponents _

…

"Ok, I'm here as promised, lets coordinate" I said unenthusiastically, standing outside Nessie's dorm room.

She smiled, and then grabbed my hand and led the way to the shuttle stop. It was Saturday, so there were shuttles that took the upperclassmen to and from the city that ran every hour.

"Ok so, have you ever been to France?" She asked me as we were entering our third formal-wear store.

"No, but I'm sure you have. Why?"

"I thought you said you traveled a lot too?" She asked me

"Yeah, well, I kept my road trips to the US, and occasionally Mexico." I explained

"Mexico? Why are you so bad at Spanish then?"

"I said that I traveled there, not that I spoke to anyone." I said with a smile "Why are you so good at the language anyway?" I asked as I started playing with a lock of her amazing hair.

"I can speak many languages." She stated. She looked up at the dumbfounded look on my face and smiled. "What? You know my family travels a lot, it's just easier to not have to rely on translators." She giggled

"Wow" I didn't know what to say to that.

"You don't speak any other language than English?" She asked

"Uh, I grew up knowing how to speak Quileute, but that's not exactly a widely used language and it's been a long time since I spoke it, so I don't remember much." I explained

"Quileute?" She asked confused. She was so cute trying to hide her confusion; she hates not knowing about something.

"Yeah, the Native American Tribe." I said and couldn't help but chuckle a little bit at the way she was frustrated by her lack of knowledge on the subject.

"Oh. Why would you know a language like that?" She asked

"Well my grandfather only spoke that language, he refused to learn English, so my sisters and I were taught it so we could communicate with him. But after he died, we kind of lost the urge to speak it very often." I explained

"Wait, you're Native American?" She asked surprised

"Yep, one hundred percent"

"Wow, so I bet your family really wants you to marry another person from your tribe to keep the blood line pure and all of that?" She asked looking away

"No they actually really don't care, and I don't have any plans on marrying someone with my same background, in fact, I'm sure I won't." I said confidently, she looked over at me and must have suspected what I meant and blushed.

"Ok, so how about this one?" She asked holding up a men's dress coat.

"I think it's awesome." I said with false enthusiasm, I wasn't fooling her.

"Right. You have the same reaction to everything, so I'm just going to stop asking your opinion and just pick it out myself."

"Thanks" I said sincerely.

"You are just so huge; it's hard to find your size. Are all the guys in your family as big as you and your cousins are?" She asked

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Ooo this is perfect." She said pulling out a black blazer. "We can pair it with a hot pink tie that will match my dress." She said proud of her find.

"Uhhh, hot pink? Babe, I don't think that pink matches my skin tone." I said with more fear than I ever felt facing any vampire.

"Are you kidding, it's going to be really sexy." She said as she reached up on her tip toes, and wrapped her arms around my neck before planting her lips on mine. Our lips danced together for a few moments before she released me and smirked knowing I would wear whatever she wanted. _She didn't fight fair_.

We never talked about our relationship status; I knew that if she kissed me again, I wouldn't stop her, so we have been sharing these amazing kisses all week. I gave up on my age issue, kissing never hurt anyone, besides I had no self control when it came to her, and I knew I never would.

We went to the cashier to buy my new clothes and she pulled out her credit card.

"No way, this is _my_ stuff; I'm not letting you pay." I told her before grabbing her card and shoving it back in her purse.

"Jake come on, I have more money than you and besides you are only getting this stuff because I want you to." She said determinedly. She was right of course, her parents gave her a limitless credit card, but I did have my own money. I still had some cash from my trucking days, and I get a monthly check from the people renting my dad's house.

"No, not happening."

"What happened to the Jake that doesn't say no to me?" She said while she batted her eyes knowing she was completely irresistible to me.

"Still not happening." I said before handing the cashier my debit card.

We went to lunch at some little café, and I started to worry when Ness said she wasn't hungry. (Of course she waited until I ordered my food before she told me that.)

"What's up with you? Sometimes you eat a ton, and other times you hardly have an appetite for days." I asked concerned about her strange eating habits.

She shrugged. "I'm just not hungry right now, what's the big deal?" She said casually

She started staring out the window that we were seated next to, and seemed to get uncomfortable. "Uh, I'm going to the ladies room, I'll be back in a few." She said before getting up quickly and disappearing.

My food came so I ate quickly because I didn't want her having to wait too long for me to finish, but after ten minutes of her not coming back I started to worry. The check took too long to come, so I just threw down a twenty and forgot the change, then went to the ladies room to check on her, but her scent was nowhere near the rest rooms. So I started really panicking now.

I followed her scent outside, but then I was hit with a strong smell of vampire and that's when I started freaking out more than I ever had before. Nessie was out there somewhere unprotected and there was a vampire around. I ran down the street and around the corner before I heard Nessie talking to someone and for some reason, I stopped to listen. The smell of vampire strengthened, but I could see Nessie so I knew I could protect her if she needed it.

"Where?" Nessie asked concerned

"At the school, you must be careful." The person told her.

"But why now, and how many are there?" She asked quickly

"They came to play football, and I believe there are four, but I'm not sure." The man talking to Nessie stopped abruptly, and snapped his head to the side looking right at me. My heart jumped when I saw that his eyes were bright red; this was the vampire that I smelled, and My Nessie was talking to him.

"HEY! BACK UP!" I yelled at him. I didn't want to phase because there were too many people around, but I would if had to in order to protect Ness, and deal with the consequences later.

"Jake!" Nessie looked surprised.

The vampire looked back at Ness, but then took off in a blur and disappeared. My instincts told me to follow and kill it, but Nessie was standing there staring at me with a look of horror on her face, and I needed to ask her some questions.

"Who the hell was that?" I asked forcefully. I usually refer to vampires as what instead of who, but I wasn't sure exactly what Nessie knew about it and how.

"Jake, calm down."

"Don't tell me to calm down. You told me you were going to the bathroom and I find you out here with that…" I let my words trail off so I could calm down enough to stop shaking. I was so angry that a vampire was so close to her, but my confusion as to why was overriding everything.

"The bathroom was full and I couldn't wait, so I left real quick to find a different one. That man you yelled at was just a homeless guy asking for some money, and you scared him to death!" That's when I realized that she was actually a really good liar. She spoke with such conviction and never blinked an eye, and if I didn't overhear part of her conversation, I definitely would have believed her. I thought briefly on what else she's lied about.

"Oh Come on Ness, you can't expect me to believe that crap. This is ridiculous why are you lying to me, who the hell was that guy, and why were you talking to him?" I said angrily

"Oh, so now you're playing the jealous boyfriend card? So what if I snuck out, it's not any of your business what I do, or who I talk to." Now she was yelling at me.

"It's just common courtesy to tell who ever you are with if you plan on leaving. I was worried about you, and that guy looked…dangerous." I said to her hoping she would trust me enough to just tell me the truth.

Nessie was quiet for a few moments, just looking at me like she was searching for something, then a tear fell from her eye and she took a deep breath. "Jake…I'm sorry. I can't do this anymore. I should have never got involved with you, I knew better, but I just felt such a strong connection between us."

"What? Ness, what are you talking about? This whole thing is stupid, if you don't want to tell me what's going on then fine, I'll deal with it. But now you don't even want to be around me anymore?"

"Look, I told you when we first met that I didn't want to date anyone; now were both going to get hurt, just like I knew would happen." She said and her voice broke at the end.

"No one is going to get hurt, because we're not going to be apart. If you don't want to be more than friends, I totally get that, but I can't _not _have you in my life." I told her with a desperate tone to my voice. We were having a great day, shopping sucked but I was with her so it was perfect, and now she wants to end everything?

"Jake, please don't make this any harder than it has to be."

"Fine." I said quietly. If she needed to break away from me, than I had to let her, but there was no way I could be completely separated from her. I would give her space but I would never stop watching and protecting her, even if she didn't know it, especially since she was talking to vamps. I was sure after some time she would get over whatever issue she had and we would be together again, we were soul mates and she would have to realize that eventually.

We rode the shuttle back to school together, but she wouldn't look at me and when it stopped, she got off and left quickly without saying a word. The rest of the week went by slowly; I gave Ness space and didn't even ask her to be my partner in Spanish class, though Embry had to suffer because of it. I thought about the things the vampire said to her, something about the school and the football team but the strangest thing that the vamp said was to '_be careful'_, why would a vamp care what happened to her? I realized that the vampire wasn't being aggressive to her, but that just made the whole situation even more confusing.

I was extra alert while walking through campus, but I never smelled anything off. The rest of my pack couldn't find anything out of place either, but stayed focus at all times just in case. Leah managed to save my sanity by somehow getting Nessie's roommate to exchange rooms with her, so now she was bunking with Nessie instead. Ness resisted Leah's companionship at first, knowing that she was my cousin, but with Leah being as stubborn and persistent as she is, Ness gave up and they continued to hang out most of the time. But that also meant that we spent less time with Leah to go over pack things, and sometimes Leah couldn't find a way to sneak out to patrol at night, which was fine by me, I'd rather her stay and protect my gravity anyway.

We stayed on high alert at practice time too. The vampire told Nessie there were four of something on the team that she had to be careful of, but nothing smelled out of place, and everyone was human except for the four of us of course. That's when I felt like a complete moron.

"It's us" I told Seth and Embry at practice.

"What?" They asked me.

"The vampire was telling Ness to be careful of us. Of course a vampire would think werewolves were dangerous." I told them.

"But what does Ness have to do with the vampires, and why would they care about her in the first place?" Embry asked quietly.

"Maybe she's friends with them like Bella was with the Cullens?" Seth offered

As much as I wanted to kick Seth's ass for suggesting it, I actually think he was right; that would make the most since. All the strange things she said, the whole monster conversation that I tried to forget, talk of immortality. Everything points to her actually being friends with a disgusting bloodsucker, just like Bella.

"Damn it! Why does this crap always happen to me?" I didn't mean to say that out loud, but I just couldn't control it. If Ness was friends with a vampire, and she really wanted to become immortal like she was talking about, then maybe she was planning to get her wish. She was a good liar, so I bet she didn't plan on going to college because she actually wanted to be _changed_ after high school. But I would never let that happen, not again, not to her.

"All right boys, and Miss Harrison of course, let's huddle!" The coach called us. "Ok, big game coming up, so let's use the rest of this practice time to scrimmage, offense against defense."

We all went to our respective positions and started to play. I guess my head just wasn't in the game, because our new offensive players easily got through our defensive line and scored right away.

"What the hell?" Embry said under his breath.

Leah kicked and of course they scored again. I knew our new offense was good, we did win every game, but I never thought they were this good.

I decided I needed to focus this time, so the next play started, and again, they got through us.

"Ok, no more messing around guys, we have to stop them next time." Embry said quietly.

The quarterback threw the ball across the field, and it was caught by the receiver, who was right by me. I went to tackle him, but was shocked when I found my face planted on the ground. I just laid there for a moment locked in my own disbelief.

"Uhh? Are you ok Jake?" Seth asked as he stood over me.

"What's going on?" I asked mostly to myself

"I don't know, but their kicking our ass" Seth stated the obvious

Our next round I decided to take out all the stops and I used more strength than I should have, finally bringing down the tight end, but he narrowed his eyes at me suspiciously and got up without saying anything.

After practice, we met Leah behind the stadium to ask her what she knew about her fellow offensive players.

"Hey, I only kick. I could kick some real ass out there if the coach wasn't a sexist moron and actually let me play." She ranted

"So you haven't seen anything strange? At all?" I asked her.

"I don't really practice much with them, I'm usually by myself; practice is actually pointless for me, it's not like I'm improving." She said smugly

"Well hello boys" Greg the new quarterback came up to us. He had the receiver Zack with him, as well as Calvin the center, and the new tight end Tim.

"Hey guys, we were just talking about you" Seth said accusingly

"Cut the bull, we know you're not human." Greg said abruptly

"Really? What are we?" I said cockily

"Werewolves." Zack said boldly

Seth, Embry, and Leah all exchanged worried glances, but I refused to break eye contact with Greg, he was obviously the leader of whatever they were.

"And what are you?" I asked Greg. I figured there really wasn't a point to denying it, when it was obvious they knew for a fact.

"Well that's not fair, we figured out what you are, you should have to do the same with us." Greg said with a sadistic smile. It was odd that this was all coming out now, these guys have been here for weeks and we all actually got along really well before.

"Fine, what do you want?" I said coldly

"Hey, we're just here to play ball. But next Friday is a full moon and you dogs better lock yourselves up, or whatever it is that you do to keep yourselves from killing people, or we're going to have issues." Greg said in a threatening manner.

Seth was about to tell them that werewolves were only like that in movies, but I shot him a warning glare so he knew to shut up.

"Don't worry, we won't be a problem." I told Greg. The last thing I wanted to do, was get in a fight when we didn't know what we were fighting. I had no idea how they _somewhat_ knew about us, but if they thought we were only a threat on a full moon, then we had some time to figure out what exactly they were. They definitely smelled human and had human heartbeats, but the kind of power they displayed on the field, was way more than human.

***Does anyone know what the offense players are without reading the description in the first chapter? Check it out if you don't remember and can't wait for it to be revealed. I hope you like the direction this is going in, ****Please Review*******


	9. Showing the Truth

**Changing Tides**

A/N: Ok, here it is, the big reveal, I hope it lives up to your expectations.

Ch 9 – _Showing the Truth_

….

So now I was even more confused. There are four of us, and four of them on the football team; so who was the vampire warning Nessie about?

_Well, who would a vamp be more afraid of?_ – Seth asked as we were patrolling in the woods.

_That depends on what kind of monster they are_. – I answered him the best I could

_I would guess vamps would be more afraid of us. Remember those newborns we fought against? They were terrified when we came onto the scene._ – Embry thought back excitedly

_Well, I know that Victoria and Riley sure were afraid of me, well Riley was anyway_. – Seth remembered his experience during the same battle.

_Yes Seth, we all remember how you took out that vamp with Edward, but damn, why do you have to remember their names like that? Just call them vamp one, or leach two, and so on_. - Embry thought to Seth

_You just called Edward by his name._ – Seth rebutted

_Well Edward was our ally, and he did marry Bella who we all spent time with, and his name was always running through Jake's mind so…_ - Embry thought

_Enough, both of you! Can we just stay focused on the now instead of going down that happy memory lane?_ – I told them. This is when I really wish Leah didn't have to stay back with Ness, because she always backs me up on their idiotic off topic conversations. But then again as my Beta, it was sort of her job to back me up.

_Sorry_ – They both thought at the same time.

Like always, we didn't come up with anything on our patrol, but I hated that there was a potential threat on campus, and Nessie still wouldn't be around me so I couldn't protect her. I couldn't stand it anymore, I hated being so separated from the center of my universe, and my steel cables were being stretched too thin (Not that it was ever possible for them to break). It was so obvious what I needed to do, and I couldn't believe I waited so long to do it.

_Uhh, you sure that's a good idea bro?_ – Embry thought while hearing my plan in my mind

_Don't listen to Em, I say go for it. It's worth the gamble man._ – Seth encouraged.

I didn't need either of their support, but hearing Seth agreeing with me, just gave me that extra nudge to push me over. So I ran back to campus, phased, and humanly ran to Nessie and Leah's dorm, butterflies were protesting inside of me the whole way.

It was past curfew, so I knew the front door to the building would be locked, so I stood under the window and texted Leah to open it. Leah's confused face peered out the second floor window, and then she opened it as wide as it would go.

I didn't tell her my plan, so I expected her to be confused, but she didn't question me.

"Ness, stand back for a moment" I heard Leah tell her knowing I was about to jump in.

"Why, what's going on?" She asked confused

"Please just trust me and stand back" Leah asked

If I was in wolf form, I could have easily cleared the second floor window, but as a human it wasn't possible to do it in one leap, so I climbed the tree first then jumped to the window before climbing through.

Nessie was shocked

"Jake, what are you doing here?" She asked me in a confused resentment. "And how did you do that?" She added upset, but I knew her well enough to know that she was concerned for my safety more than angry about my intrusion.

"Do you want me to hang out?"Leah asked me guessing as to why I was there.

"Leah, you can't leave its past curfew." Ness said to her than turned to me "And you can't be here, you need to leave" Leah and I ignored her.

"No Lee, do you mind taking off? But don't go far just in case, I'll text you if I need you." I told her.

"Sure, I'll go crash in your bed; I bet Seth and Embry are going to love that." Leah said with an evil smirk then headed for the window before adding "I'm only a minute away, 'course if she freaks at you, she probably won't want to see me either."

"Leah, you can't jump out the window, we're too high…" Ness started to say, but then Leah was gone. Nessie rushed to the window and looked down, but Lee was the fastest out of all of us, even as a human, so she was already out of sight.

"Oh my god, where is she?" Ness said in a panic.

"Babe she's fine, I promise." I half expected her to yell at me for calling her babe when we technically weren't even friends anymore, but she didn't. Instead she looked up at me for a moment with tears in her eyes, and then wrapped herself around me holding me tightly. It only took me a second to know that she missed me as much as I missed her, and I held her securely against me and kissed the top of her head.

"I love you so much Nessie" I whispered to her. I never actually told her that before, so she looked up at me surprised and the tears started flowing down her cheeks.

"I love you too." She said softly "But Jake, it's just not enough, we're too different…" I shut her up by planting my lips to hers. I would never force myself on her, but I knew in that moment that she wouldn't want to push me away.

All of our other kisses were soft and sweet, but this one was forceful, passionate, and completely amazing. Before I knew it, she had my shirt off and we were lying on her bed, more than making up for our time apart. She had her hands locked in my hair but then they moved down my bare back and as much as I didn't want to, I knew I had to pull away from her.

I sat up and had to take deep breaths to calm myself and clear my head. She sat too, wrapped her arms around me and kissed my shoulder then waited for me to be ready to talk.

"Babe, I…"

"Jake, I'm so sorry. I love you so much, but…"

"But nothing. I came here tonight because I need to tell you something, and if you choose to tell me something in return, then that's up to you." I wasn't about to let her tell me again how she can't be with me. At least if she knew the truth and still says that, then there would be a real reason.

"Okay, go ahead" She told me sounding unsure.

"I haven't been honest with you, at least not about who I am. Everything we've done together, all the time we've spent when it's just been perfect, that was me, the real me, so I don't want you to think that what we have isn't real because it's the most real and important thing in my life." I paused to take a deep breath, and she waited. "Do you remember that picture I showed you, of me and my dad?"

"Yeah, the one with the address on the back."

"Yeah, that was one of my little lies."

"Ok, why would you lie about a picture?"

"Not the picture, just the number on the back. You were right, that was the date."

"But it was eight years ago, and you looked exactly like you do now?"

"Yeah…I'm actually 24." I said slowly

"Twenty four? So you were sixteen in that picture? Why are you in high school if you're twenty four, and that still doesn't explain why you look exactly the same in that picture. You should have changed somewhat in the past eight years." I found it odd that she didn't even seem to be upset at my age; she was more concerned about my lack of change over time.

"Well, that's the thing, I stopped aging at sixteen." I said then waited to see her reaction.

"Stopped aging? How, why?" She wasn't freaking out _yet_, just confused.

"My cousins and I, ok well, we're not actually cousins. Seth and Leah are brother and sister, but they aren't related to Embry or me, and we're not related to each other either. But we're close because we all have the same gene that allows us to…phase into wolves." I said slowly and watched her face carefully.

"Wolves? Jake that's not funny; I thought you were going to be honest with me." She really thought I was messing with her. At least I knew now that the vamp wasn't warning her about us, because she would have believed me right away if that were the case.

"Babe…Ness, I'm not kidding, I'm being perfectly honest. I'm a werewolf, and I have been since I was sixteen, so I don't age anymore and I won't ever again, unless I stop phasing."

"You were born like this, a gene caused it?" She asked disbelievingly. I nodded, so she said "I thought werewolves had to be bitten like vampires do?"

"All I know is that my pack and I were born like this, we all phased for the first time around sixteen, and we don't need a full moon to do it." She was taking all of this really well, I would have expected fainting or screaming out in horror.

"Fine, let's see." She said and motioned for the window. I was a little shocked. I wasn't expecting this reaction and I certainly wasn't prepared to _show_ her my wolf. But then again, she did talk to vampires without any noticeable fear, so maybe she was just used to the supernatural somehow.

"I don't think that's such a good idea, I don't want to scare you."

"Do I look scared? If you want me to believe all of this, then just show me; I'll go first." She said before crawling out the window, and jumping to the tree. I was shocked. It wasn't impossible for a human to make that jump, I just never thought she ever could.

I bypassed the tree and just jumped straight down landing easily on my feet. She watched me carefully.

"How did you make that jump to the tree?" I asked her

"My dad loves climbing trees, so I've spent a lot of time in them growing up." She said casually. I wasn't sure if I believed her or not, but in the moment, I just didn't care.

"Ok, you sure you want to do this? We're going to have to go into the _forbidden_ forest to do it." I said teasingly. Maybe it wasn't the time for jokes, but she actually seemed amused by it.

"Well if you're really a mighty werewolf then there isn't much out there that can hurt you right?" She said with a crooked smile.

"Exactly, I tried telling you I was perfectly safe out there." I smirked

"Well, that remains to be seen." She disagreed lightly

We headed out to the forest, but stopped at my room first to get some flashlights and an extra pair of shorts. I didn't need the lights, but I didn't want Ness to be blind in the dark forest. We walked about a mile out before she stopped abruptly and said "This is far enough."

"Uhh, Ok. When I phase my shorts will rip off, so I'll need to go into the trees when I phase back to dress again. I won't be able to talk to you, but I can understand you so you can talk to me just don't expect an answer." I said in a rush, I was really nervous but for some reason extremely excited at the same time.

"Ready?" I asked

"Go for it"

I phased easily and stood in front of her waiting for a reaction. Her eyes became wide while looking me over, but then she relaxed and took a step closer to me. I laid on my stomach so I was closer to her level as she reached her hand out to me. She ran her fingers through the fur on my head, and all the way down my back. Her hands were steady because she wasn't afraid, not even a little bit. She continued to stroke my back and it felt so good that I couldn't help the low rumble in my chest. She wasn't even afraid of the noise, but she took a step back to look at me in the face.

She nodded her head and said "Ok, I believe you."

I ran back into the cover of the trees, phased and got dressed, then ran back to her.

"Are you Ok?" I asked even though she looked completely fine.

I had to remind myself that she was my imprint, and imprints are supposed to accept this without being too afraid. Emily accepted it right away, so did Kim, and Rachel accepted when Paul told her, but she did have a hard time with the idea of her little brother being a wolf too. Even Claire as a three year old would ride on Quill's back when he was a wolf.

"Yeah, I mean I'm just a little surprised that's all." Nessie told me

"Ok, do you have any questions, or maybe something you want to tell me?" I asked hoping she would understand what I meant.

"Like what?" She seemed to really not have any idea what I was asking, but I knew that she did.

"Come on Nessie, what was up with the vampire you were talking to the day you broke up with me?"

"Vampire?" She asked like she was confused.

"I know you know what I'm talking about, that guy you snuck out of the restaurant to talk to was a vampire, I know a vampire when I see one, I can smell them."

"Look, I wasn't lying when I said I never saw him before, I swear. He just came up to me because he was concerned about…"

"Someone on the football team, yeah I heard that part. What exactly did he say, and how do you know about vampires in the first place?"

"I know about vampires because of my family. We've been so many places, practically everywhere, we were bound to run into different monsters along the way. I've seen a lot of things actually, and by the way, you are not a werewolf." She told me abruptly

"Wait, what?" I asked confused

"I've seen werewolves, and that's not you. Werewolves only come out during a full moon and they stand upright like a man, and like I told you, they are created like vampires, by being bit."

Ok, so my imprint was a monster expert, how did this happen? I didn't know what to think about everything especially the fact that I wasn't even a werewolf, so instead I asked the more important question at the moment.

"What are our offensive players?" I knew she must know, the vampire told her to be careful of them and she seemed to know everything else anyway.

"They're a coven of witches, or warlocks, whatever you want to call them"

"Witches?" I had to chuckle a little bit, was she actually serious?

"They're very dangerous Jake, you have to be careful. Alone they aren't very powerful, but together they can be deadly, even for monsters. They're main enemies are vampires, but they'll take down anything they see as a threat and I'm guessing that if they find out what you are, they'll want to kill you too."

"Ok first, me and my pack are not a threat; we protect people from bloodsucking leeches, that's our whole reason to exist. Second, why would the vampire tell _you_ to be careful of them if they are just enemies of monsters?"

Nessie was quiet for a few moments like she was thinking of something.

"Because, even though I never met that particular vampire before, we had mutual acquaintances and he knew that if the witches found out that I had associated with vampires in the past, that they might see me as a threat." She said slowly and it was obvious she just made the whole thing up as she went.

I was starting to catch on to her lying habits, and I could hear it in her voice now. But as much as I wanted to question her further, and tell her I knew she was lying, I just didn't have it in me. She obviously ended our relationship for a reason, and now I felt like she was coming back to me. The last thing I wanted was to push her away again, so I let it go.

We walked back to campus, and I watched her climb the tree by her window and jump lightly into her room. I questioned that in my mind as well, but I didn't want to hear anymore of her lies tonight, so I kept it to myself.

"Jake, please just promise me you'll be careful around the witches? I know you don't believe me when I tell you they're dangerous, but please just trust me." She said.

The strange thing about Nessie was the fact that I did trust her; I knew when she was lying, but for some reason I knew she was lying for something important, and I trusted her enough to just go with it. I could feel her love when she looked at me, and I knew she was worried or afraid of something beyond witches and vampires, so I would wait until she was ready to tell me the whole truth. As long as she allowed me to be a part of her life, I was certain I could protect her from whatever underlying threat she was afraid of.

***I hope it didn't disappoint and you aren't too angry at Nessie for not telling Jake her truth, she has her reasons. ****Please Review*******


	10. Wolf, Wolfe, Black

**Changing Tides**

A/N: Spoiler Alert! - (If you're not confused and you prefer to wait to let the story play out, then stop reading this A/N now) - _Ok, I planned on letting things get revealed later, but I'm worried people are getting frustrated so here's the deal, Jake can't possibly figure out that Nessie is a Cullen because to him, it's impossible for vampires to have children. But if you remember the dream he had in Ch 6 about Bella and Nessie, his subconscious is trying to tell him the truth, even if he doesn't fully understand it. He knows there is a hybrid out there, he just doesn't think it's a vamp hybrid. And Nessie didn't know what Jake was, because her family purposely never told her anything about the Quileute's or shape shifters, but she has seen real werewolves and knows Jake isn't one. It was hard for her to believe that Jake was immortal because she thought he was a normal guy. Ness is a good liar because she has to be, and she learned from the best, her dad. (Remember in BD Jake commented on Edward being a good liar?) As to why she didn't tell Jake the truth, well that I will wait for you to find out later, she definitely has a good reason so don't be too mad at her. Besides if we found out everything now, what would the rest of the story be about?_

Disclaimer: I don't know any Spanish whatsoever and I'm relying solely on my translate button, so If I get any of that wrong, then I apologize.

*****UPDATE***** Thank you so much to the reviewer who fixed my Spanish translations for me in this chapter, I hope I did it right. You didn't sign your name, but thanks just the same.

_Ch 10__ – Wolf, Wolfe, Black_

…_._

"Si el sol ardiese mañana, el mundo se calentaría por la luz que arde dentro de ti," Nessie said.

"_If the Sun were to burn out tomorrow, the world would be warmth by the light that burns inside of you. -_ Is that right?" We were practicing Spanish to English translations, and Nessie was telling me sentences in Spanish and I was supposed to say it in English.

"Muy bien mi amor," she told me. I understood that one for sure. "Ok, now I'll tell you a sentence in English and you translate it."

"Ok, but make it an easy one," I requested.

"Tomorrow, I will take you shopping and never complain once," she said with a smile.

"Is that the sentence?" I asked after rolling my eyes.

"Yep, come on let's hear it," she said playfully.

"Ok –Después de tu graduación, me arrodillaré y te pediré que te cases conmigo," I told her (which meant- _After graduation I'll get down on my knee and ask you to marry me)._

Nessie just stared at me for a few moments with a shocked look on her face. "That's not what I told you to say," she said slowly.

"Te amo más que a nada, y quiero que permanezcas conmigo en vez de marcharte a Europa." (I love you more than anything, and I want you to stay with me instead of moving to Europe.)

"Jake?"

"No tienes que contestarme ahora; sólo quiero que se sepas lo que hay en mi corazón, y así tengas tiempo para decidir lo hay en el tuyo." (You don't have to answer me now; I just want you to know what's in my heart, so you can have time to decide what's in yours.)

She climbed onto my lap and wrapped her arms around my neck. "I already know what's in my heart," she whispered then started kissing me with the intensity of wildfire. After a few minutes, we both needed to catch our breaths, so we pulled away from each other.

"You've been holding out on me," she said with a crooked smile. "So, you've only been pretending to be horrible at Spanish so I would spend all this time tutoring you?"

"Oh no, trust me, I'm bad. I've just been practicing those lines for a while," I told her then pulled her in for another kiss.

I wasn't asking her to marry me officially, but I wanted her to know of my plans so she had time to consider the idea of _not_ going overseas with her family.

We had the day off of practice so we were studying early, but that was more than fine by me because that just meant I got to spend the afternoon with my gravity. Nessie pulled away from me suddenly, and immediately her body stiffened.

"What is it Babe?" I said quietly, but then our offensive players walked by.

"Wolfe," Greg said

"Carter," I said his last name in response, though he could have been saying wolf, instead of Wolfe, it was hard to tell.

"Mutt," Zack said under his breath right before disappearing around the corner. And that's how it went every time I passed by the quarterback/ leader of the resident witches, and his coven.

I knew the witches were watching my pack for any sign of us being a threat, but they were wrong about what we were all together. I watched Ness relax when they were out of site.

"Honey, they have no reason to want to hurt you, you don't have to be afraid every time they pass, besides, I can protect you against anything."

"You just don't know how dangerous they can be." She said quietly. I hated that she was so afraid of these guys, but I was glad that she at least knew enough about them, to know to keep her distance; I didn't want her anywhere near them.

"I just don't understand why they think we're werewolves when we're not, and how they found out we're different in the first place? Everything was cool between us for weeks when they first got here," I said mostly to myself.

"Jake, Greg probably didn't know what you were before, because he never touched you. When witches touch someone that isn't human, they get a mental picture of what they really are. When your defense played their offense, he must have come in physical contact with you at some point and got a flash of a wolf, and assumed you were a werewolf. Obviously, they aren't very well versed in real werewolves, but I guess neither were you," Nessie explained.

"Hey, I knew what the movies say about werewolves, but I just thought all that was bogus. Movies don't get vampires right with the whole burning in the sun and wooden steak through the heart thing, so why would they get werewolves right? How was I supposed to know we weren't actually even werewolves at all?" I said defending my lack of knowledge of my own species.

Nessie was knowledgeable on many forms of monster, but she still claimed that it was because her family traveled a lot and came across them while abroad. I didn't believe her of course, but I loved her too much to call her a liar to her face, and we had only been back together for a couple of weeks so I didn't want to drive her away again.

"So, where are we going for dinner tonight?" I asked her

"Ugh, why don't we just eat here?" she said

"Is that code for you're not eating tonight, because I know you wouldn't eat in the cafeteria by choice?"

"Jake, don't make a big deal of it, I'm just not hungry sometimes," she said annoyed by my concern for her food intake.

"Babe, you know I just worry about you."

"Yes I do know that, but I also know what's best for me, and you need to just let me decide for myself if I'm hungry or not," she said calmly.

"Ok, you're right, I'm sorry," I told her. "Cafeteria dinner, here I come," I said mostly to myself but Ness giggled anyway.

"Hey Vanessa, we're all going to the movies, do you want to come?" one of Nessie's cheer friends came over and asked.

"Oh, no thanks. I'm just hanging out with my boyfriend tonight…"

"Babe, it's Ok. You hardly ever go out with your friends anymore, it's cool really. I'm just going to go for a run tonight anyway," I assured her.

"O-Ok, sounds like fun," she told her friend, and then she reached up to kiss me before taking off. I hated when she went into the city without me or Leah, but she knew more about monsters than I did and knew what to watch out for.

Now that my evening was free after all, I went to look for my pack to see what they were doing. Seth was hanging with his girlfriend. After I started dating Nessie officially, Seth just assumed dating the high school girls was acceptable, so it didn't take him long to find a girlfriend of his own. I explained to him that Ness was my imprint, so it wasn't the same thing because we were going to be together forever and not just for a few weeks like he usually was with his girlfriends. But at least Seth was dating an eighteen year old, so I didn't give him too much crap for it.

Embry and Leah were busy cramming for a test they had the next day, so that meant I was alone for the rest of the evening, or at least until after curfew when we would go patrolling. I decided to go for a run alone, not patrolling, just a run for the fun of it. I went further out than normal, because it was still early and I didn't want to risk anyone seeing me who may have wondered out into the forest.

It was strange, like there was an invisible line that surrounded the school where there was absolutely no smell other than the natural smell of the forest and the animals that live there, but on the outside of the line, the smell of vampire traffic was strong. I thought about waiting for my pack to investigate, but that's when I saw one. My first thought was to try and capture it like we planned, so I could question it as to what the whole hybrid thing was, but when he saw me, he attacked right away.

He was an especially nasty leech. He was as big as the biggest Cullen, and he was smart and a skilled fighter. We fought for several minutes, but after I finally had his head off, I was shocked when he immediately went up in flames. I jumped back to avoid getting burned, and was completely confused as to how the vamp caught fire on its own, when I heard clapping behind me. I turned quickly and saw Greg and his fellow witches standing there watching me.

"I'm really impressed Wolfe," (or wolf, I wasn't sure) Greg said.

I just huffed at him and resisted the urge to bare my fangs.

"Relax; we're not here to fight. We saw you headed out here and got curious, but that…that was something, truly amazing," Greg said. "It's not a full moon and yet here you are and fighting one of our enemies. We were wrong about you, and I'd like to call a friendly truce."

I phased back to human so I could speak and didn't even care that I was naked; it's not like we didn't dress in the same locker room anyway.

"You were wrong about us, but I know exactly what you are," I told him.

"Really, and what's that?" Greg asked

"Witches," I stated

"Warlocks," Zack corrected me, but Greg gave him a warning look.

"How did you figure that out?" Greg asked

"I have my ways, just as you have yours," I told him.

"Look Jacob, I think we're all the same side here, so why fight needlessly."

"And what side is that?" I asked him

"Well the obvious is we go to the same school and play football for the same team, but more importantly, we protect people by killing vamps. There is no reason we should be fighting each other when we want the same thing."

"We aren't fighting each other, because if we were, you'd be dead." I really hoped I sounded cocky enough.

"I'm not your enemy Wolfe, and you don't want to turn me into one," he threatened

"Just so we're clear, when you say Wolfe, do you mean _Wolfe_ as in my last name, or _wolf_ as in the animal?" I didn't really care either way, but nothing he was telling me was keeping my interest enough to not think about it.

Greg just smirked then the four of them turned and walked away.

I phased back to wolf and ran to where I stashed my clothes. I could have stayed longer hunting for vamps, but I really wanted to get back and tell my pack about my little meeting. As much as I hated admitting it, I actually did think the witches were kind of cool, the way they set that vamp on fire with a spell, or however the hell they did it, was awesome. And Greg really was a likeable guy when he wasn't being all alpha witch, so maybe these guys weren't going to bring us any trouble after all.

I went by Leah and Nessie's room first. I didn't expect to find Ness there because she should still be at the movie with her friends, but Leah was supposed to be there studying. I didn't have to climb the tree because it was before curfew, so I went straight inside and knocked on the door. I was pleasantly surprised when Nessie actually was home and smiled when she saw me.

"Hey Babe, what are you doing back already?" I asked her as I went inside and shut the door behind me.

She didn't answer me right away, so I asked her another question.

"Where's Leah, I thought she was supposed to be here?" I asked her but she seemed to be thinking hard about something, and looking away from me.

"Babe?" I sat by her on the bed, and lifted her chin so I could look her in the eye. "Honey, what's wrong?"

She took a deep breath, and then finally answered me quietly. "I decided not to go to the movie and Leah went to study with Embry in your room."

"Ok, what's wrong with you?" I asked concerned.

Tears started rolling down her cheeks before she answered. "You were just in the forest."

"Yeah, I thought we established that I was safe out there?" I asked her confused as to why she was upset.

"You killed a vampire didn't you?" she said in a whisper. I had no idea how she knew that, she looked happy to see me when I was at the door, but as soon as I closed the door behind me, her mood changed. It was almost as if she could smell it on me or something, but humans can't smell vamps the way we could so that wasn't possible.

"Ness, I know you have had vampire friends, or whatever, in the past but vampires are dangerous and it's my job to kill them." I tried making her understand.

"Not all vampires are dangerous Jake; can't you even consider the possibility that some vampires are good?"

"No," I said a little too quickly. I knew the Cullens weren't dangerous, but the last thing I wanted to do was encourage Nessie's fondness of the species, by admitting that not all were horribly evil.

Nessie closed her eyes slowly, and then opened them after a few moments looking straight at me.

"I love you Jake," she said softly

"I love you too, more than anything," I said slightly confused by the change of direction.

"Do you really want to marry me Jake?" she asked looking deep in my eyes.

"Of course I do, as soon as you'll have me."

"Ok, after graduation, but right away, we can go to Vegas or something," she said while drying her eyes.

"Really? What about your family and all that, shouldn't I like, at least meet them or something?"

"NO!" she yelled. "I mean, no; it's not a good idea. They wouldn't be happy about it, and I just don't want them to try to stop us."

"Well, maybe if I meet them, and explain how much I love you, maybe…"

"No Jake, they wouldn't let it happen. I told you, they know about the supernatural and they would figure out what you are, and they would never let us be together."

"Well you'll be eighteen, they don't have a choice."

"Trust me Jake, they will find a way to keep us apart. Please, just do this my way. If we want to be together forever, then we can't tell my family."

I was concerned about the amount of fear she had when speaking of her family, I never heard her talk about them with anything but love before and I wondered what changed. But I was even more confused as to how this conversation went from her being upset at me killing a vamp, to her planning to marry me right after graduation. Of course I wasn't complaining.

She pushed me over on her bed and started kissing my neck. "I can't wait to be Mrs. Wolfe. See now my childhood desire to be a teen wolf makes sense." She giggled in my ear before playfully tugging on my lobe with her teeth.

"Oh, about that? My last name isn't actually Wolfe."

She sat up to look at me in my face. "What is it?"

"I had to change it because of the age thing. It's actually Black."

"Jacob Black?... I like it." She said casually.

"And Vanessa Black sounds good too…" I said, but she shut me up by pressing her mouth to mine.

"Jake, I want to be with you."

"You are with me," I said smiling.

"No, I mean really be with you…right now," she said while lifting my shirt then kissing my stomach. It only took me half a second to understand what she meant, and I wanted what she was asking so badly, but she was still so young.

"Babe, I thought you wanted to wait until…" I couldn't finish because now she had her shirt off.

"I don't want to wait, Leah won't be back for hours, and I'm sure she will stay at your place if you tell her to. I want to be with you now, I love you so much and I'm ready to be connected to you completely."

I didn't verbally agree, but she knew I would never deny her, so she continued to undress herself.

"Jake?" she asked while she pulled off her pants

"Yeah?" I was barely able to speak

"Did you practice anymore phrases in Spanish?" she asked smiling, I smiled back.

"Te amo más que la vida es uno mismo, eres mi gravedad y el centro de mi universe" I told her (I love you more than life it's self, you are my gravity and the center of my universe)

"Dios te amo" She replied. I wasn't exactly sure what she said, but I knew it was something about love.

And we continued on, making the most amazing love that I ever experienced, the kind I never knew really existed.

***What do you think? Did Nessie's response to Jake killing the vamps make sense? I hope it's becoming a little clearer as to why she hasn't told Jake the truth about her and her family. ****Please Review*******


	11. Childhood Friends

**Changing Tides**

Ch 11 – _Childhood Friends_

….

"Are you Ok?" I asked her

"Never been better" She said confidently

"I love you"

"I love you too."

We spent the entire night tangled up together, only separating when curfew checks came around. I hid in the closet. I texted Leah to stay away all night, so everything was perfect, too perfect in fact and I cursed the inconsiderate sun when it rose forcing us to break apart from one another.

"No, stay in bed." I begged her futilely.

"Can't, I have a big exam today in physics." She told me with a smile as she got up and put a robe on, before collecting her things for the shower. They were communal showers so she had to leave the room to use them.

Then there was a knock at the door. I was about to hide again, but Ness somehow knew who it was without looking. "It's Ok, it's just Leah." She opened the door.

"Sorry, I would have just used my key, but….yeah." Leah said uncomfortably as she looked at me lying in Nessie's bed. "How the hell did you both fit in that tiny bed anyway, oh please tell me you didn't use my bed too?" Leah whined.

"No Leah, I promise." Ness assured her before kissing her on the cheek. "Thanks for bunking with the guys last night, I owe you." Nessie said before disappearing out the door.

"You're damn right you owe me!" Leah called after her and then she turned to me. "Well, I guess I'll get a mindful of this tonight during patrolling won't I?"

"Sorry Lee. I'm getting better at controlling my thoughts though" I said

I started getting up, but Leah freaked out. "No no no, can you just wait until I leave? I mean we both know I've seen you naked, but it was never by choice and I really don't care to see _all_ of you right now." She said quickly.

I just looked up at her and smirked as I threw the blanket off of me, and she shielded her eyes. "Relax Leah, I have shorts on."

"Oh, right. You know Seth's going to really lay into you for this one." Leah pointed out knowing Seth was going to shove my rule of _no dating high school girls_ in my face.

"Yeah I know"

"Do you care?"

I thought back to my amazing night with Nessie and said "Nope"

"So family week is coming, are you going to have some special introduction planned out for yourself to her parents?" Leah asked me.

"No, I don't really know what's going to happen with that. She really doesn't want me meeting her family at all."

"Well her parents are like insanely overprotective. They call constantly and Ness has to call them every night before she goes to bed." Leah explained.

"Really, what do they talk about?" I was a little jealous that Ness would talk to her parents around Leah, but wouldn't around me. I knew that Leah could not only hear Nessie when she was on the phone, but she could also hear the person she was talking to as well.

"Mostly about her classes and such and if she's being safe and following curfews. But she is so lovey-dovey with them it's sickening."

"What does that mean?" I asked confused.

"Everything is 'I love you daddy' and 'I miss you momma', and she cries a lot when they say good bye. It's strange, it's like she almost sounds like a little girl when she talks to them." Leah explained.

"What do they say to her, are they ever forceful or intimidating to her?" I asked thinking about how Nessie almost seemed afraid of them last night.

"No, not that I've heard. Her dad sounds young and strangely familiar in some way, but he's always calling her Baby and Princess and Sweetheart and all of that. One night when you guys were still apart, she was really upset so she called him and at first he said something about wanting to come bring her home, but she convinced him she wanted to stay, so she actually laid in bed and he sang her to sleep over the phone…it was odd, but strangely comforting at the same time. Kind of made me miss my dad."

"Ok, what about her mom?" I asked

"Her mom isn't much different than her dad, young sounding, kind of high pitched bell voice, but soothing at the same time, it's really strange. She calls her sweetie or honey or nudger, whatever that means, and they sound really close too."

"But they never talk about anything strange like monsters or such?" I asked Leah

"No, not around me anyway." Leah said.

Now not only was I confused, but I felt really bad too and I just couldn't figure Nessie out. I really thought Nessie's parents scared her for some reason, and that's why she wanted to run to Vegas to get married. If she wants to marry me, but she doesn't want me to meet her family, then does that mean she doesn't plan on seeing them again? But if she is as close to her parents as Leah is saying, then how will she ever be able to be away from them to be with me and how could I let her make that choice?"

I needed to contact her parents somehow, if I could just convince them of how much I love her, maybe they will understand and she won't have to lose them to be with me. It was as if fate was telling me that I had the right idea, because just then, her cell phone rang, and on the screen read MOM. I didn't even think, I answered it quickly.

"Hello?" I said

"Who is this?" Her mom asked, Leah was right about her voice, it was high pitched but not annoyingly so, and it was vaguely familiar in some odd way.

"Uh, I just wanted to say hi, I'm uh…Vanessa's boyfriend Ja"

"Boyfriend? Where is Vanessa, and why are you answering her phone this early in the morning?" She asked sounding upset. _Crap, I didn't think of that, I'm such a moron._

"Uhh?" I had no idea what to say, but that's when I got in even more trouble because Nessie came in through the door.

"Jake?...why are you on my phone, and who are you talking to?" Nessie said almost franticly. She didn't wait for me to answer before she grabbed the phone away from me.

"Hello?" Nessie said into the phone.

"_Who was that, and why did he say he was your boyfriend?"_ I heard her mom say. With my super hearing I could hear her mom almost as easily as I could when the phone was pressed against my ear.

"Mom." Nessie turned to glare at me before answering her mom. "Mom, don't worry about it, he's just my study partner and we have a really big test today, so he came over before class to study one last time." Damn she was a good liar, she never missed a beat.

"Vanessa Mason. Don't you think I can tell when you're lying or not? You're dad might still be able to fool me sometimes, but I know you too well, so tell me the truth before I go get your father and let you tell him." I had to admit, her mom was good.

Nessie looked over at me quickly and must have realized that I was listening to their conversation, so she quickly left the room to finish talking.

"Ooo, you're in the dog house now." Leah teased knowing Ness was mad at me.

Leah finished getting ready for her day, then left. I waited in the room hoping to smooth things over with Nessie when she came back, but then I figured she must have gone straight to class because she the tardy bell rang. So I got dressed and went to go wait outside her first class so I could talk to her before the next class period started.

I waited as all of the kids filed out of the class room, but I started to worry when I didn't see Nessie, but then I peered inside the room and she was there talking to some guy.

"I just can't believe you're here." She said excitedly to him as she walked with her arm linked with his.

"Hey Babe" I said when she finally saw me

"Who are you?" The guy said coldly to me

"Uh, Nigel, this is Jacob Wolfe, I told you about him remember?"

"Right, the boyfriend."

"Who the hell are you?" I asked him getting frustrated

"Oh, sorry honey, this is Nigel. He's been my best friend for as long as I can remember." She said uncomfortably.

"Okay, so why is he here?" I said without taking my eyes off of the guy

"Well he just transferred here from Brazil, that's what my mom called to tell me. Sorry for leaving without telling you, I was just so excited when she told me he was here, I just ran to find him without even thinking." She said and then noticed that I was glaring at the fact that she was practically holding his hand, so she let her hand drop quickly then stepped to my side and grabbed my hand.

"Ready to go to Spanish?" She asked nervously. Though Spanish was my first class of the day, Nessie had recently picked up an extra class before.

"Well this class should be easy for me, Spanish is such a beautiful language, but it's just so simple" Nigel said smugly.

"Wait, you have Spanish with us?"

"Nigel sort of has all of my classes with me." Ness said quietly.

"What? How the hell did that happen?" I asked upset

"Well, my dad has a lot of connections and thought he would be more comfortable being so far from home, if he shared all of my classes and that way I could help him adjust as well." Nessie said with an innocent half smile.

This Sucks!

When the three of us got into class, and Nessie and I went to take our usual seats, and Nigel stopped to wait for the teacher's instructions as to where he should sit. The teacher was having a hard time placing him and that's when the girl Nessie sits next to, raised her and offered to give him her seat and she would move and share a desk with her friend on the other side of the class. The teacher agreed, so now Nigel was sitting next to Nessie.

"Well this is perfect." Nigel said as he came and sat next to Ness.

The rest of the class was pure hell.

Nessie and Nigel spent the whole class giggling and joking around like a couple of little girls. The teacher called on Nigel to answer a question and of course he answered in perfect Spanish. I just didn't understand why he was even taking this damn class if he was already fluent. He kept touching My Nessie in different ways, like on her arm, or grabbing her hand for whatever reason. I wanted to rip his head off.

"Dude what the hell?" Embry asked under his breath. He even saw the way this guy was totally flirting with her and she either didn't notice it, or just didn't care.

After class we went to lunch, and things weren't much different. My pack, along with Seth's girlfriend, sat with Nessie and Nigel, while he told us all about his adventures in the rain forest.

"The panther was completely agitated, but I had my cross bow and it was an easy kill." Nigel said while winking at Ness and she smiled in return.

"So you always hunt wild animals down there, like its legal and all that?" Seth asked full of interest.

"Well I don't know about the law, but we all do. My dad and sisters love hunting and camping and all of that, sometimes killing large predators is just part of the game." Nigel said.

"That's cool" Seth said almost in awe of him.

"Wow, so you and Ness are just two peas in a pod then huh?" I said in a sarcastic manner.

"Two peas in pod? I'm sorry I don't understand that saying?" Nigel said to me.

"I just meant that you're families seem to like the same things, camping and hunting and all that." I said with more attitude than I intended.

"Well yes, of course, our families have been close for years, since Vanessa was a baby in fact." Nigel said while smiling at Ness

"Wouldn't that have made you a baby too, I mean you're around the same age right?" Embry asked him

"Well, of course, we're both fully matured now." Nigel said

"What does that mean?" I asked about his strange choice of words

"It doesn't mean anything Jake, he's not from here and his use of language is just a little different." Nessie said quickly and annoyed at me for even asking about it.

"So what brings you here now Nigel?" Leah questioned him. I could tell Leah didn't trust this guy either.

"Well Vanessa's father called me a few weeks ago and said she was having trouble at school, so he asked if I would come keep her company for a while. I would have come sooner, but I was detained by some family business." Nigel explained, then he turned to Ness "Your dad said you didn't want him coming here to visit, what is that about?"

Nessie looked at me before she told him "I'm an adult and I don't need my daddy rushing in every time I have a bad day. He promised to let me have my space while I'm here, and I'm just glad he's keeping his promise."

"Vanessa, your father loves you very much and you know he worries and he has good reason to. This is the longest you've ever gone without seeing your family and they are having a hard time with it. Even Met is going around talking about how much he misses you."

"Wait, you saw them? When?" Nessie asked

"Yes, I flew into New York before coming here. Oh that reminds me, your aunts asked me to bring this to you." Nigel pulled out a fashion magazine and gave it to Ness.

Nessie opened the magazine and inside it looked like a bunch of outfits were circled with little notes written in permanent marker on each one. Ness had tears in her eyes as she looked through the different notes her aunts wrote for her.

"Are you Ok Babe?" I asked her concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She wiped her face. "My aunts are so obsessed with all this stuff, they're planning this huge shopping trip in France after I graduate…." Nessie's voice broke at the end, and then she got up quickly and left. Nigel was about to follow her, but I grabbed his arm and pulled him back down to his seat. I got up then and ran after My girlfriend.

"Honey wait…Ness!" I yelled and then I finally caught up to her.

"Baby what's wrong?" I asked her even though I had a good idea of what was bothering her.

"Nothing I'm fine, I'm sorry I just needed a minute." She said before turning into me and leaning her head against my chest. I wrapped my arms around her and just held her.

"We don't have to get married, at least not right away. If you want to go to France with your family first, then I can wait. I'll wait as long as you need Babe, I'd wait forever for you." I assured her

"No, Jake, I want to marry you right away, it's just going to be hard living without my family."

I hated seeing her upset more than anything so as much as I didn't want to, I told her "What if I come to Europe with you, then you don't have to choose between me and your family?"

"You can't meet them, I already told you that. They won't approve of you and then they would find a way to keep us apart, I have to choose and I chose you, but that doesn't make it any easier for me."

"Ok, so they won't approve of me, but I bet your dad would love you being with Nigel." I had no idea why I said that, I guess a part of me was resenting the fact that this guy seems perfect for her and even her family loves him.

"Nigel and I are just friends Jake." She said slowly.

"Well maybe to you, but I see the way he's looking at you and always trying to touch you all the time."

"All the time? Jake he's only been here for a couple of hours, and that's just how he is, it doesn't mean anything." She defended him.

"I bet it means something to him, and he's a guy, so you shouldn't be so close to him anyway." I couldn't even believe the stupid jealous things that I was saying, but I couldn't stop them either.

"Oh Ok, well I guess you shouldn't be around Leah either."

"What? I don't have any romantic feelings for Leah." I said shocked that she would say such a thing.

"No? How do I know that?"

"Babe, you know mine and Leah's relationship, she's like a sister to me. In fact she's more of a sister to me than my actually sisters are"

"Well, Nigel is like a brother to me. I've known him since I was little, and I really think this whole jealousy thing is ridiculous. I love You, and I'm going to leave my family for good to be with You, and I just hate that you would ever question my loyalty." She said looking like she was going to cry again.

I felt horrible.

"Babe, I'm so sorry. And I'm not questioning your loyalty, I know you love me, I'm just an idiot sometimes. I just hate that you're giving up your family for me, and I know that if you were with this guy, you could still be with your family too."

"Jake, I never loved anyone as much as I love you. My family has always been close and I love them very much, but if I have to choose, and I do, then I choose you, it's not even a question. I know that in time, my mom at least will come to understand that, she did the same thing after she graduated high school. She left her family and her whole life to be with my dad and I know she misses them, but she is just beyond happy with her life now, that I know I'm making the right decision in choosing you." She said full of conviction.

"I'm sorry Nessie. I wish I could be a normal guy for you, the kind of guy that your parents would approve of. Maybe someday, after I stop phasing and the aging process starts again, maybe you're parents would accept me then."

"No, you can't stop phasing, if you do you'll grow old and die. You can't die, ever." She said in an almost panic.

"Well babe, eventually I'm going to want to grow old with you." I said confused as to why she would want me living forever when she was a normal aging human.

Nessie had a strange look on her face, and seemed to want to say something but then changed her mind.

The first bell rang so lunch time was over and we needed to get to class.

"Jake, I have to go find Nigel so I can show him where our next class is. I love you and please don't worry about him and me. I only want you, and I'll never want anyone else for the rest of my life; please trust me." She reached up and kissed me goodbye before running off to find her Brazilian friend.

I knew without a doubt that Nessie loved me, but jealous or not, I knew that there was something up with this guy and he had reasons for being here other than being a comforting _friend_. But I was going to drop it for now, at least I wasn't going to talk to Ness about it anymore, but I would definitely keep an untrusting eye on him.

***I hope you all know who Nigel really is, and I'll just say it now so it's clear, Jake didn't recognize Bella's voice completely because he never heard her as a vampire and she didn't recognize him because she would never think Jacob would ever be at her daughter's school, so she wouldn't put two and two together. - ****Please Review*******


	12. Discovery

**Changing Tides**

A/N: Ok, I know I already updated today, but this was just sitting in my computer already done, so I decided to publish it anyway. This is my last chapter that I finished ahead of time, so now I will actually have to start writing them again. I hope you like it, and I'd love some ideas for future chapters.

Ch 12 – _Discovery _

….

_Dude, I can't believe you actually slept with her_. – Seth thought as we patrolled

_Shut up Seth, it's none of your business_. – I told him

_Hey, you're the one who yelled at me for dating the high school girls; at least my girlfriend is eighteen. _– Seth replied.

_Seth you are such a moron, Nessie is Jake's imprint, where you are just taking advantage of these young girls, it's actually sick._ – Leah told her brother

_It's not sick, or illegal, she's eighteen. How old is Nessie again, Jake?_ – Seth thought smugly

_Seth you better watch your mouth, Jake's going to kick your ass_ – Embry said.

_I just can't believe you're really going to get married right after graduation_. – Leah said to me

_Well Nessie doesn't want to wait, but we can't actually get married until September when she turns eighteen._ – I explained

_What are you guys going to do all summer then?_ – Embry asked

_I really want to take her back to LaPush to meet everyone, but we'll have to wait and see._ – I said

_So is that where you guys are going to live?_ – Seth asked

_We haven't really talked about that yet, but I would assume so._ – I told them

_So how long until you stop phasing all together and grow old with her?_ - Embry asked me

_Jeeze guys, what's with all the questioning? I don't know exactly what's going to happen but yes we are going to get married, and yes I will stop phasing sometime in the next few years so I can grow old with her, but as for the exact details of these things, I just don't know yet_. – I said hoping to end their annoying questions.

_Ok, man. All I'm saying is that with Sam wanting to quit and now you, I'm just wondering what's going to happen to the pack when you're both gone_. – Embry added, but then everyone shut up and we finished our patrol.

The next couple of weeks past, and there was a strange sense of uneasy peace on the campus. We were entering December and the grounds were constantly covered in snow, making it hard to patrol the forest because the scents of vampires were lessened or covered by the freeze. Our football team was heavy in playoffs and we were of course, leading the stats. I almost felt bad for the other teams, it just wasn't fair that our team was stacked with four defensive super natural wolf men (I didn't know what else to call us since we weren't werewolves) and four offensive male witches. The other teams didn't have a chance.

My pack and I actually really started to get along great with the witches, once they realized we weren't a threat to anyone but vamps, they really cut the attitude and we started collaborating together on local vamp details. We would tell them about our vamp fights, and they told us stories of their own and they were all very entertaining.

"So what did the vamp say about a hybrid?" Greg asked me after practice one day.

"Nothing much, he just said that he knew the rule to stay away from the school because the hybrid was here. We've been keeping a look out, but I mean we don't even know what kind of hybrid we are supposed to be looking for. And that was in the beginning of the school year, and yet there's nothing here." I explained to him.

"That's so strange. I asked my parents if they ever heard of any hybrids of any kind, so they did some researching, and they found some old legends of like sea people and alien hybrids, even demons that come to earth to produce Halflings with humans, but they think it's all made up crap." Greg explained before, that his whole family were witches and it was also in his genes.

"Hey but you never know. I mean I always thought vampires were crap too, but we both know they exist so why not aliens and what not?" I disagreed with him

"Yeah I guess, I didn't think of it that way. Well whatever the hell kind of demoniac we're dealing with, if even a vamp is afraid, then we have to figure out what it is and take it out before it has a chance to hurt anyone. Hey my coven and I will make sure we touch as many people as possible to see if we can find any nonhumans in the mix around here. Between, our touch and your sense of smell, we should be able to unveil this thing." Greg said enthusiastically

"Hell yeah, we can. Although, my pack and I couldn't smell you guys, so maybe we can't smell this hybrid either." I responded.

"Well, like I said, we'll try and touch ever person we can in this school, and we'll be sure to find them, who knows, it's probably one of the teachers or other staff members here." Greg said.

We were walking out of the locker room, and then Nessie came up to me with a smile, but her face fell serious when she saw Greg and huddled closely to my side.

"Hey honey, how was cheer practice?" I asked her

"Fine." She gave me a short answer, which usually wasn't a good sign.

"Hey Vanessa, how would you like to be the first person in the school to try my new handshake. My plan is to get everyone in the school to learn it as sort of a school spirit thing?" Greg asked her.

Ness leaned even closer to me and tightened her hands into fist each holding on tightly to my shirt.

"No thanks, I'm sort of a germ-a-phob." She said to him nervously. "Hey, can we go, I don't want to be late?" She asked me.

"Uh, sure." I told her. "Oh hey, I'll see you later Greg" I told him before Ness and I left.

When we were far enough away from Greg I said "Ness, why are you still afraid of Greg? I told you that he's cool and he's not going to hurt you." I tried assuring her

"Can we just not talk about it please? I have my reasons for not wanting to be all buddy-buddy with him, alright?" She said coldly

"Ok, fine." I've learned to just go with whatever strange little issues Nessie has with certain things, none of them were worth the argument.

"So where are we all meeting?" I asked her. A group of her cheer friends were all having date night together with their boyfriends, so that meant Ness and I were going too. Dinner and a movie was their usually staple, so it wasn't a surprise when that was the plan tonight as well.

"La Italiano at six, then the movie is at eight." She said casually.

Dinner was good but the company was really boring. A couple of the boyfriends were on my team, but we didn't talk much, and the girls were all screechy and annoying. The movie wasn't much better; it was some lame chick flick and even Nessie seemed bored with it.

"So do you want to spend the night tonight?" Nessie asked me on our cab ride back to the school.

"When do I ever pass on sleeping over?" I said with a smile

"Poor Leah, I bet she hates me as a roommate." Nessie said with uncontrollable smile.

"Neah, I think she actually likes harassing Seth and Embry."

"Yeah, I think you're right." We both started laughing.

Nessie's phone started ringing, so she automatically pulled it out of her bag and answered it.

"Hi Mom." She said

"Hey sweet heart, is Nahuel around?" She asked, which was slightly confusing to me.

Nessie looked over at me briefly before answering her. "No, I'm out with some of my girl friends tonight" She only half lied, but her mom didn't catch it. "Why?"

"Oh, no reason really. His sister called and just wanted to get a hold of him, I guess his phone's not working." Her mom said.

"You know him; he hates technology and always forgets to charge it. But I think he's out for one of his night time hikes that he loves so much, so I probably won't see him for the rest of the night."

"Ok Sweetie, I love you, I'll talk to you later."

"Love you too mom, bye." And Nessie hung up, and then looked over to me. "Sorry, about that. What were we talking about again?"

"Ok, wait, who is Nahuel?" I asked confused

"Oh, well that's Nigel's real name. He got it in his head that people in English speaking countries can't pronounce his name right. It's no different than someone named Pedro going by Pete, or something like that." She explained

"Oh" Was all I could say. I guess I really couldn't fault the guy for changing his name, after all I changed mine.

When we got back to campus we went up to her room to ask Leah to bunk at my place so Ness and I could stay the night together. I usually stayed at Nessie's a couple nights a week, and Leah would always complain of course, but I knew she didn't really mind.

"Hey Lee." Nessie and I both greeted Leah who looked like she just finished studying.

"Hey Jake, I was just about to call you. Embry called and he said we need to have a _meeting_." Leah used the word meeting as code for vamp killing, because she knew Nessie hated it when we killed vampires. But she knew what was going on anyway.

"Ok, dang. Sorry babe but I have to go" I kissed Ness on the mouth then ran out with Leah.

Leah and I caught up to Seth and Embry quickly, and ambushed the small vamp coven taking them out easily. There were three of them just outside that strange imaginary boundary of the school.

_Man that was fun_ – Embry thought

_Hell yeah it was_ – Leah agreed.

Seth and I just rolled our wolf eyes at them. As much crap I give Seth about stuff, he was still the only one who agreed with me that it wasn't necessary fun killing vamps. He used to be friends with Edward, and I kind of had a soft spot for Dr. Fang, he did fix me up that one time. (Plus I still cared about Bella, even if I wouldn't admit it to myself)

We were running back and we had already crossed the boundary line, when we all smelled the blood.

_Wow, that smells fresh_. - Leah said

_Yeah but it's not human, so it's probably just a bear or mountain lion eating his meal._ – Embry thought

_Sounds cool, I'm going to check it out_. – Seth said.

As much as I didn't care about seeing a mountain lion eating his kill, I decided to go anyway. I lived for years as nothing but wolf, so I hunted deer and other game in order to eat, so I really didn't get any thrill out of seeing dead animals the way Seth and Embry did.

We followed our noses and found a dead buck lying uneaten on the forest floor.

_What the hell; did it just die?_ - Embry asked

_No, it's drained of blood, see?_ – Leah said

_Is one of the Cullen's here or something?_ – Seth thought knowing that only the Cullens would have a desire to drink animal blood.

_No, I don't smell any of them_ – I commented

_Yeah me either_ – Seth said

_Uhh, do you smell that?_ – Embry asked, and that's when we took off at full speed towards the familiar scent, and then we saw him.

He pushed aside the doe he was drinking, stood and hissed at us before running into the night.

_Umm?_ – Leah thought

_What the hell?_ – Embry thought

_Since when is Nigel a vampire?_ – Seth thought

None of us really knew what to think or do, but all I knew was that Nessie must have answers.

When we got to the school, I asked my pack to let me talk to her alone, because I thought she would open up more if it was just the two of us, but they were all really freaked and decided to continue to patrol just in case.

"Hey honey." Nessie said happily when I came through the door. She stood up and wrapped her arms around me before kissing my neck.

"Babe, I need to talk to you" I said while pulling her arms down.

"Ok, what's wrong?" She asked

"What the hell is Nigel, or Nahuel, whatever his name is?"

"What do you mean _What_ is he?" She asked

"He's not human Ness, we saw him draining a deer and we're pretty sure it wasn't his first" I said angrily. She knew exactly what I was talking about, but she was lying, just like she does so often and now it was really starting to get to me, and I wanted answers.

"Jake, it's not what you think." She said quickly

"Really? Because I don't know what the hell to think. Only vampires drink blood like that, but I know Nigel can't be a vampire because he has a heartbeat and his eyes are brown and all of that. So I'm going to ask you again, what the hell is he?" I asked forcefully

Nessie looked away for a moment then she looked back at me. "He's a hybrid"

I just stared at her for a long moment, not sure if I actually believed what she was telling me or not.

"It's not possible. There can't be a vampire hybrid, it's just not possible. Vampires can't reproduce like that, they're made of stone, walking corpses, they can't produce a hybrid." I said in denial.

"I'm sorry Jake; I wanted to tell you, I just knew how you would feel about…"

"YOU KNEW HOW I WOULD FEEL?" I started yelling at her in pure fury, but then I saw the panicked look on her face so I forced myself to calm down. "How can you sit there and tell me you love me and then lie about something this major?" Asked her feeling seriously betrayed.

"This right here, this is why I didn't tell you, because I knew this was how you'd react." She said with tears streaming down her face. "Jake, I promise you, I swear, he's not dangerous. Please just let this go." She begged.

"Let this go? He's a freaking vampire Ness, that's disgusting; I can't just let that go." I said before heading to the door. I heard all I needed to hear when she admitted he was a vampire. At least I knew what kind of hybrid that first vamp was talking about now.

"Wait, Jake where are you going?" Nessie asked franticly before grabbing my arm trying to restrain me.

"Where do you think I'm going? He's a vampire, I kill vampires. I think you can figure it out." I said to her coldly.

"No Jake, Please, you can't. Baby please, just hear me out Ok." She was completely shaking, and seeing her like that tore a hole in my chest, so I stopped to listen to her.

"His dad was a vampire and his mom was a human. Please, he doesn't hurt people at all. I met him when I was little and he never once tried to hurt me or anyone else, please don't do this." She begged between sobs.

"I'm sorry Nessie he's an abomination; he shouldn't exist. Vampires can't be allowed to reproduce like that, it's disgusting. How the hell did a human woman survive birthing that thing anyway?" I asked

Nessie just stared at me and covered her face with her hand.

"His mother didn't survive did she? That demon killed his mother didn't it?" Nessie's lack of denying it was conformation enough for me, so I started heading back to the door again.

"Jacob. If you hurt him, if you even try then that's it; we're done for good." She yelled at me. I turned around slowly.

"You're picking him over me?" I asked in disbelief

"No I'm picking my friend over a murderer. Because if you kill him, that's exactly what you'll be. I kept my mouth shut while you went out and killed all those other vampires because I knew that they were all killers themselves, but Nahuel is good and innocent and I will not stand by while you hurt him." She said vehemently

"Fine." I said then walked out the door.

I was so livid that I couldn't even think straight. My whole body was shaking in violent tremors and I knew if I didn't get away soon, I was going to phase right then and there. I ran back to the woods and phased immediately and then took off running. I was fighting a battle within myself on what was happening. My instincts told me to track down the demon hybrid and rid the world of its disgusting existence, but my heart told me to listen to my imprint. I was supposed to do anything in my power to make her happy, and she was definitely not happy at the moment.

_Hey bro, didn't go so well huh?_ – Embry thought

_No Em it didn't; and I have no idea what to do_. – I told him

Even if I didn't mean to, I kept replaying my fight with Ness in my head, so now my whole pack knew everything.

_Jake, maybe we should just trust Nessie, I mean we let the Cullen's live because they didn't kill people, maybe we should just give Nigel a pass too?_ – Seth thought

_No Seth, we didn't let the Cullen's live; our ancestors did that and made a treaty that we were obligated to uphold. But the Cullen's broke that treaty by biting Bella and that just proves that those disgusting leeches can't be trusted, and shouldn't have been allowed to exist. If my grandfather and his pack would have just killed the Cullens back then, Bella would still be alive and I will not let Nessie suffer the same consequence as she did for befriending those blood sucking demons_. – I thought to Seth, but was telling all three of them.

_So is that your decision then? Are we taking the hybrid out? _- Leah asked

_Maybe we should contact Sam?_ – Seth thought

_We don't need Sam, Jake is our alpha and we'll do whatever he decides_. – Embry told Seth

_But it's wrong to kill someone if they're innocent_ – Seth rebutted

_It's not 'someone' Seth, it's something_ – Embry corrected him

_Shut up both of you, I'm trying to think. Ok, here's what we're going to do, we're going to catch him and lock him up for a while until we're sure he's not a threat_. – I decided

_You got it boss_- Seth said happy with my decision.

And we all took off trying to find the hybrid Nigel, or Nahuel, _whatever_. I considered telling Greg and the witches about our discovery, but I knew they would want to kill him right away, and I owed it to Nessie to at least give her friend a _chance_ to live.

***I hope you liked it! ****Please Review*******


	13. Body and Soul

**Changing Tides**

Ch 13 – _Body and Soul_

…

We never found Nigel. We followed his disturbingly human scent all the way to the rode, then it disappeared; someone must have picked him up in a car. But even worse than that, Nessie was gone too. Leah and I went back to their room hoping to talk to her, but her purse and keys were missing as well. It was late at night so I was desperately worried about her. I followed her scent out to the gates, but then it disappeared; she too left in a car somewhere, and I became terrified at the thought that they were probably together.

It was a Friday, and she was gone all weekend. I had no idea how to get a hold of her, she didn't answer any of my calls and none of her cheer friends had heard from her either. On Monday, I was relieved when Leah called me and said that Nessie showed up, but that was the extent to my relief because then Leah told me that she gathered her things and left.

I absolutely hated myself for yelling at her the way that I did, but I couldn't stop the anger from flowing at the thought of her lying to me about the hybrid. But above everything else, going three days without seeing her, was pure agonizing torture and now I wasn't sure if she took her things and moved to a different room, or took them and left school all together.

By Tuesday, I was in a serious state of depression and it was physically painful not being with her for so long. I was starting to think that I was going to have to go to New York, or maybe even Europe, and try to feel her pull on me then beg for forgiveness. I sat next to Embry in Spanish and quietly planned my trip to search for her, but then she walked through the door.

"Nessie!" I couldn't help but yell it, I was just so thankful she was there and Ok.

"Leave me alone Jake." She said quietly before taking her seat. The teacher glared at me, so I took my seat behind her but I couldn't help whispering to her.

"Baby, I'm so sorry. I miss you so much; I'm going crazy here without you."

She didn't turn, in fact she ignored me all together and when class was over, she left quickly, but I was quicker.

"Ness please stop, just for a minute?" I asked her

"Jake, there is nothing left to say." She wouldn't look at me when she spoke.

"You're wrong, there are many things left to say; a lifetime's worth and we're going to have a lifetime to say them, because we love each other and we're going to be fine, better then fine."

"Jake, I went to my room yesterday to collect my things because I planned on going home, but then I realized that I just can't go back to my family, at least not right now."

"Not that I'm complaining that you're here or anything, but why can't you go be with your family?" I asked confused.

"My dad, he would know what happened, and he would know about you. He would come to this school, and things would get ugly between the two of you and I just couldn't stand it if either of you got hurt."

"Babe, I would never hurt a human and there is no way a human could hurt me. Besides how would your dad know what happened unless you tell him? Did Nigel go to him or something?" I asked

"No, Nigel isn't in New York and he won't be back here either. You'll never see him again so you just need to get your lust for his blood out of your system and forget he even exists. As for my dad, he has his ways and I'm not going to get into it with you. Look, I just want to finish this school year and then that's it. You'll go off to college and I won't know where, so my dad won't be able to find you either and we can just forget that this whole year ever happened."

"I can't do that Nessie, I can't live without you. I should have told you this sooner, but I just didn't know how. I imprinted on you, it's like when someone from my tribe finds their soul mate but it's so much more powerful than that and it's physically painful for me to not be around you."

"Maybe we are soul mates Jake, maybe that's why we felt such a strong connection to one another, but if that's true, then god was playing a cruel joke putting us into the bodies we're in. We can't be together, at least not in this life." She said and then she walked away.

I wanted to follow her and tell her she was wrong, but for some reason her words felt like a dagger to my heart and I couldn't move. I didn't understand anything she just said about our bodies being wrong, or her dad knowing things without being told. It was like the more she didn't make sense, the more I knew she was finally being honest with me and I just needed to figure it all out. I felt like the answer was right in front of me, like it was obvious, but I had a mental block up because maybe I didn't want to know the truth. The lies she tells are much easier to understand and believe, but the truth didn't matter, not really because I just didn't care anymore. All I cared about was finding a way to be with her again, and she could tell me the truth or lie as much as she thinks is necessary.

I needed to come up with some kind of a grand gesture to show her how sorry I am. But I knew I needed to give her a little space for a few days until she calms down first. Of course I would still have to be around her, even if she didn't know I was there.

I found out she was staying in her friend's room, so I would make several passes by the window at night, just to make sure she was Ok. I didn't try to talk to her on Thursday at class, and I think she was grateful for my silence. Friday rolled around and we had a huge game which happened to be in our home stadium. The winner of this game would go to State, so all of the school showed up and there was a buzz in the air from everyone's excitement.

It became a tradition for us to watch the cheerleaders at half time, so at least I got to see Nessie dance. But her movements were different, as if you could see her sorrow in the way she moved. The game was over quickly, we won of course, and the stadium erupted in huge massive cheering and applause. Our team was so excited that many of the players went to the cheerleaders and hugged them and gave them all high fives before running into the on looking crowd to do the same.

Nessie stayed out with her friends to celebrate, and I acted like a disgusting stalker and followed her staying hidden in the shadows. But for some reason, I felt like she knew I was there; maybe she could feel our pull or sensed me in some other way. When she finally went back to her room, I decided to go to bed too, it was late and I was beat.

It seemed like I barely closed my eyes before I was awoken by a loud pounding on the door. My first thought was that it was Seth or Embry and they forgot their key, but then I looked over and they were both in their beds looking just as confused as I was. The sun was shining brightly and I realized that I actually slept all night and it was now morning.

"Who the hell is pounding on the door?" Embry asked groggily

"Ugh, Seth, answer it." I ordered him before grabbing my pillow and using it to cover my head.

"Why do I have to get it?" Seth complained, but he got up anyway.

"Because you are the youngest and it's your privilege to do as we tell you." Embry told him.

Seth opened the door, and invited whoever it was inside. I let out a frustrated huff before removing the pillow from my face and sitting up.

"Oh hey Greg, what's up?" I said emotionlessly.

"Jake, I need to speak with you right away, it's extremely important." Greg said, and then added "Alone."

"Uhh…Ok." I said confused, and threw a shirt on before following him outside. It was still pretty early so most people were still sleeping (Like I should be) especially because of the partying that went on through most of the night, and no one was around. Greg kept walking straight out towards the stadium before I had to stop him.

"Greg, where are we going?" I asked him.

"We're just about there." He said, so I continued to follow him. Finally we got to the storage shed where we kept all the practice equipment, and he stopped and turned to me.

"Ok, I need to tell you something, but I need you to stay calm." Greg told me

"It's way too early to be messing around, just tell me whatever it is that's so important, so I can go back to bed. It's Saturday for crying out loud." I complained.

"Ok…We caught the hybrid last night." He said quickly

"The Hybrid? No, it left town last week." Greg looked at me confused so I decided Nessie's disgusting blood sucking friend was long gone, and it was safe to tell him about it. "It was Nigel, he was a vampire hybrid. We caught him draining a buck and he saw us and took off. We haven't seen him since." I explained.

"You mean that Brazilian guy that was only here for a couple of weeks?" He asked

"Yeah, and to tell you the truth, I have no idea how we missed him. I mean he smelled…human, it was really strange." I told him

"Man, that's disgusting, I can't believe there were two of them, what's the world coming to?"

"Two?" I asked

"Think about it Jake. That first vamp talked about a hybrid at the school, and that was months ago, long before the Brazilian guy came."

Crap. He was right, how stupid am I really?

"I can't believe I never thought about that. So you found it huh, what was it posing as? A teacher like you thought?" I asked curiously.

"No, a student."

"Student? Wow, so how did you find it?"

"At the game last night while we were celebrating and giving hi fives to everyone. The second I touched it, I knew what it was. I got the whole mental flash of it draining a mountain lion, it was absolutely disgusting. So when everything died down last night, we snatched it from the room it was in and brought it here. It's a nasty mean thing, it fought hard and I have to admit, it's much stronger than I expected and definitely stronger than any normal human. It took all four of us, along with a sedation spell to get it here." He told me.

"Well cool, let's see it." I said to him.

He looked at me cautiously like he was trying to evaluate me for some reason, but then he opened the door to the shed. He moved some of the equipment out of the way exposing a round hatch door in the ground, and he pried it open before hopping in. The whole thing was strange and I had no idea why there would be a hatch in the bottom of a storage shed in the first place, but I followed him inside anyway.

"This was made to be a bomb shelter back during the war, but of course it's not used for anything anymore." Greg said. It was a shallow dark tunnel with a door at the end, and the only light came from small gas lamps which were lining the walls. The other three witches stood in front of the door and moved aside when we got closer.

"We would have just killed it when we caught it, but I thought you deserved that honor yourself." Greg told me.

"You want me to kill it…why?" I asked confused

"Trust me, when you see this thing you are going to be so full of rage that you're going to need to kill it, just to stop yourself from exploding." Greg said, which confused me even more. "Alright guys open the door." He ordered

They opened the door and motioned for me to go inside; apparently, I was going in alone.

"Knock three times when you want to come out" Zack said to me.

The room was dark also, though it was no problem for my eyes, but even_ if _I was completely blind, I knew exactly who was in there because her smell was unmistakable.

"Nessie?" I asked in a panic. I had no idea why they had her locked up down here, like she was the monster, but if they was hurt in any way, I wouldn't hesitate to kill all of them.

"Just go, Jake." She said completely lacking any emotions.

I went to the corner she was huddled in, and kneeled down pulling her into me, holding her securely.

"Are you Ok? What's going on, why do they have you locked up down here?" I asked her slowly.

"Didn't they tell you? I'm a vampire hybrid." She said flatly

"Baby, that's ridiculous. They are just confused because you were friends with Nigel or something, but don't worry, I'm going to straighten this all out and they are going to wish they never laid a hand on you." I said while shaking from the anger I felt towards those damn witches.

"No Jake, no more fighting, and no more lies. I'm so sorry but they're telling you the truth, I am what they say I am." Nessie said while pulling away from me.

"Babe? Look they just have you confused"

"I'm not confused Jake. My father is a vampire and my mother was human. Why do you think I didn't want you to meet them?"

"No"

"My family sought out Nigel when I was a baby, because they were trying to see if others like me even existed"

"No"

"My dad's coven is very strong, in fact the second biggest in the world, and that's why vampires are afraid of coming close to the school. My dad and uncles spread the word that if anyone came within four miles around me or the school, that they would be killed immediately. I overheard you and Leah talking about the imaginary boundary line; well that's it. Jake, you know that I lie to you, I know you know that, but I'm not lying to you now, I swear and I'm so sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen." She said with her voice breaking at the end.

I just sat there next to her silently for a few minutes. This couldn't be true, this had to be a lie she made up to try and push me away. But then I started thinking, really thinking for the first time since I met her and that's when I realized that it all made sense. Her strange behavior, her weird obsession with immortality, her love of vampires…

"The vampire I saw you with, the one in the city with the red eyes…was he your father?" I asked still not completely convinced that I believed her or not.

"No, I wasn't lying when I told you that I never saw him before. He was actually a friend of my uncle's; he found out about the witches somehow, so he came and warned me. He was too afraid to tell my uncle about it, because he broke the rule to stay at least four miles away from me." She said quickly.

I felt sick, like my whole world was thrown into a trash bag and shook violently. I understood her last words to me now; she said that we were '_born into the wrong bodies_' and '_god played a cruel joke on us_', and now I had to agree. How could this have happened, how could I imprint on a vampire, how could I have not seen this sooner, and most importantly, how could I have ever love her or even just let her exist knowing what she is. I was born to kill vampires and abominations like hybrids, it should never be a question in my mind, it was about loyalty to my species.

My instincts to take her out of existence were as strong as they were to take out Nigel. I hated her with a passion, and I was disgusted that I ever let her in my life. I thought back to every kiss, and every time we made love and I wanted to not only rip her throat out, but I also wanted to die right along with her; how could I ever live with myself after doing such disgusting things with a vampire?

"Jake? Say something." She said quietly while she trembled.

"Why? Why did you come to this school, and why did you still date me knowing I would hate you if I ever found out?"

She started crying when I said that I hated her, but she tried to control herself enough to answer me. "I came to have a normal human experience, and I stayed with you because I was so in love with you."

"Love? Vampires aren't capable of love." I said coldly "And you're _not_ human, so why try to experience it?"

"I never meant to hurt you. I tried, I tried so hard to pull myself away from you, but it was like there were steel cables holding us together. Even when I knew you were killing vampires, I didn't care; all I cared about was staying with you no matter what."

"It was a lie; everything about you was a lie. I told you what I was, and you just stood by and didn't say a word. This could have been resolved a long time ago before things got too far between us, but you said nothing. WHY!" I yelled the last word to her.

"I didn't know how, because I knew you would react like this" She was crying intensely now. "And I was afraid. I have never been more afraid of anyone or anything in my life. Here you were, this huge vampire killing beast, and I knew if you ever came in contact with anyone in my family, you would kill them but for some reason, I still loved you. I wanted to move away from my family forever, just to stay with someone that I knew would want to kill me and my family if he ever found out what I was. I laid awake so many nights just scared to death that you were going to figure out the truth and leave me or even kill me. But I stayed with you because...because I would have rather died than be away from you." She said while shaking.

I was so angry and full of rage that I could have easily phased and killed her right away, but in that moment of seeing her in that state of pure fear, I reached out to her. Every ounce of my body fought against my unaccommodating hand, but I lost all control of my physical self, letting my soul win its war against the body I was born into.

I let my hand caress her cheek, and the wet tears there flowed down my wrist. She was so soft and warm and such a contradiction from what I know vampires to be.

"I could never hurt you." The words came out without my permission, and without my ability to think about anything other than how badly I wanted to hold her in my arms again. And in that moment of me saying those five little words, I knew without a doubt that they were the truest words I ever spoke. My body hated what she was, but my body was so insignificant compared to the weight she had on my soul.

It was absolutely impossible for me to really hate her, and I realized then, that I actually hated myself for my negative feelings towards her. I hated that I was born into a body that was made to kill her kind, and I hated that I actually allowed my mind to consider the idea of hurting her.

"Jake, I'm so sorry. Please, please, I know I don't have a right to ask you this, but I need your help." She said franticly.

"I'm not going to let them hurt you either." I said quietly to her

"No, Jake, that's not what I'm asking. It's my family; I know they'll come looking for me if I don't call them soon, I was supposed to call them last night, but the witches grabbed me and I never was able to. My dad swore he would rush here if I ever missed a call, and he can't come here. Between the witches and your pack…I can't let them get hurt because of my stupidity. I know you have no desire to help vampires, just please can you get me a phone so I can call them, please." She said in a state of panic.

I was taken aback by the amount of times she said _please_ to me. Whether I understood it or not, she was my imprint and it went against the core of my being to hear her ask me something so desperately. I was supposed to give her anything and everything she needed, and here she was begging me to do something like she should never have to do, no matter the request.

"A phone won't work down here." I said quietly, having a hard time speaking.

She closed her eyes and put her face in her hands, looking completely defeated. I reached out to her again, touching her back instead of her face. She jumped from the sudden contact and looked up startled at me, as if she really was afraid that I was going to kill her.

"Ness, I'm not going to hurt you, and I won't let anyone else hurt you either. I swear to you, on my father's soul, I will keep you safe." I promised her. Her frightened stiff body, relaxed as she leaned into my touch. Before I realized it, I pulled her back into me securely and she wept vigorously against my chest.

*** I hope you don't hate Jake now for his feelings and reaction, he just couldn't help it. But I promise he will redeem himself to her. ****Please Review****, and remember that this is a **_**Twilight**_** based story, so it will have a happy ending…eventually ***** **


	14. Getting Away

**Changing Tides**

Ch 14 – Getting Away

…

"Jake, don't" Nessie whispered after she regained control of her sobs again. "Don't do this"

"Don't do what?" I asked confused

"Don't fight with them. Just leave here, and forget you ever knew me, forget I ever even existed at all." She said

"I can't do that." I had no idea what kind of relationship we would have once this whole mess was behind us; I knew I still loved her, but I wasn't sure if it would ever be enough. But I knew for a fact what I couldn't do, I could never turn my back on her, especially now when she needed me the most. "I'm going to get you out of this Ness, I promise, and then we can have all the time we need to figure everything else out." I said quietly.

"Jake…You don't know what they are capable of, you're going to get hurt, they're just too powerful."

"I don't have a choice in the matter, it's my job to protect you and so I will, with my every last breath."

"No, Jake, it's not your job. I screwed up, this is my fault and I'm not going to let you pay for my mistakes"

"It doesn't matter what you are or what you did, I can't leave you here. You're my imprint whether I like it or not, and it's not possible for me to leave you here to die." I told her

"Maybe if you just let them kill me, maybe then the whole imprint thing will die too and you'll be free to find someone worthy of you."

"It doesn't work that way. You're it for me, there will never be anyone else and my life is completely dependent on yours. If you die, then it won't matter if I'm a million miles away, because my soul will die with you and a body can't live without its soul. I can't live in a world where you don't exist so I have no choice but to fight for you, no matter the consequences.

"You can't beat them, you are outnumbered and with their magic, they're so much stronger than you."

I knew Nessie was right, they were stronger than me. If they can make a vamp go up in flames with just a simple spell, then I'm sure they can do a whole lot worse than that.

"You said before that the witches are strongest when they're together, right?" I asked her and she nodded but didn't seem to understand where I was going with this. "Well, then our best chance is to separate them." I told her.

"How are we going to do that?" She asked hopelessly

"I'm going to call in reinforcements." I told her. I hated the idea of involving the rest of my pack in this, because I knew how dangerous it was going to be, but we are a pack after all, and dangerous is what we do. "Ness, get as far back as you can." I instructed her.

It was going to be tight because the room was small, but it really was our only chance. Nessie understood what I meant, and she curled herself as tight as possible in the corner of the room. I took off my clothes, and phased hoping someone from my pack would be in wolf form so I could ask them for help. And like always, I could count on Leah to be on top of things, it was just one more reason why she was my beta.

_Leah?_ – I said with a small amount of relief. She was running in the forest that surrounded the school.

_What happened?_ – She asked knowing there was something wrong. It only took me a few moments to go through everything from the truth about Nessie, to the danger we were now in. Seth and Embry would have asked so many questions before actually coming to help me, but Leah knew to help first and ask questions later; she was already on her way to get Seth and Embry, and bring them here to help.

I went over my plan to her, and then I phased back to human and put my clothes back on.

"Ok, they're coming." I told Nessie.

"Jake, this is wrong. My life isn't worth them risking theirs." She said in despair.

Then the door opened slowly.

"Hey dude, time's up." Greg said while looking at me suggestively. I looked over at Ness, and saw her start to shake again.

"I need some more time with it." I said _it,_ because I knew it would be the most believably to him.

"Look, Jake. I gave you this time because I knew it fooled you and actually convinced you to date it. But if you're not angry and disgusted enough to kill it yourself, then I will." Greg pulled out a knife. I was slightly surprised by his choice of weapon; I would have thought he would just want to use a spell of some sort. But it didn't matter that she was part vampire, she still had human weaknesses like a beating heart and blood pumping through her veins, so maybe a knife would be plenty to kill her.

"I can't let you hurt her" I said slowly while stepping closer to him.

"Oh come on Jake, please tell me that you're not actually feeling sorry for it?" Greg said in disbelief

"How I feel is none of your business. Either you let her go now, or I will kill you in order to get her away from here." I threatened

"Really Jake, are we really back to playing enemies again?" He asked with a smartass attitude.

"I don't want to fight you Greg, but I won't let you touch her and I'll do whatever it takes to keep her safe."

"Well, I'm really sorry that it came to this, but I just can't let her go on sucking in the same air as innocent humans do. Its life ends now." Greg said.

I had no idea what kind of attack he was going to make, because I didn't know what witches were really capable of but I did know that a little knife wasn't going to stop me. I leaped at him and grabbed him by his neck, before he shocked me somehow with the force of a lightning bolt, sending me convulsing to the ground. I was completely incapacitated, but I could still see what was happening. Nessie threw herself onto his back and clawed a gaping hole into his throat leaving him gargling and unable to speak. He fell to his knees and clasped his hands over his wound. She took him down so quickly that if I were to blink twice, I would have missed it. She was so vicious and fluid in the way she moved, that I could see for the first time the vampire that I now know she is.

She was terrifying, and completely mesmerizing.

Greg lost consciousness, and I was released from his power. I stood as quickly as possible and looked over at Nessie. She was just standing there watching me carefully, waiting for me to react to what I just saw as if she expected me to turn on her. There was blood dripping from her hand, and my first thought was that she had gotten hurt somehow, but then I realized that it was in fact Greg's blood.

She moved slowly closer to him, and kneeled down over him. My mind told me to look away because I never thought I'd be able to stand there and watch her drain him, but I couldn't take my eyes off of her. She brought her mouth over his wound and let her tongue lap up the blood there, until it was wiped clean. My stomach churned at the sight of it, but when I really thought about it, it wasn't the fact that she was licking his wound that made me sick, it was the fact that her mouth was on him, and she belonged to me. _How the hell could I possibly be feeling jealous in this disturbing moment?_

I watched her closely waiting for her teeth to break through his skin so she could begin sucking, but she never bit down on him. After a moment, she stood up and pressed her back against the wall and stared at Greg's body like she was expecting it to do something. I followed her stare, and looked down at him too and was stunned as the wound began to heal at a rapid pace. All of a sudden he gasped and started coughing before his eyes opened slowly.

"Jake, we have to go now." Ness said impassively

I couldn't think straight, I had no idea what just happened and I was frozen in shock. I didn't even see Nessie move, but she grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the door with more force than I ever thought she was capable of. My body responded before my mind had a chance to catch up, and I found myself outside and standing in front of another confrontation.

Leah, Seth and Embry stood in front of the three other witches and they seemed to be waiting for the other side to make the first move. The three wolves were baring their fangs and growling, while the witches had animalistic looks of aggression of their own on their faces.

"You guys might want to go check on your leader; he could probably use some of your combined healing powers." Nessie said to the witches. They all looked at each other before running down the hatch to try and help Greg.

"We don't have a lot of time, as soon as Greg is fully healed; he's going to come after us." Nessie said to me. I had so many more questions, but I knew that this wasn't the time and she was right, we had to get as far away as possible.

"Get on my back" I told her before phasing and crouching down waiting for her to climb on top of me. She didn't question me; she just climbed her way on top of me lithely and we took off running.

_Where to now, Jake?_ – Leah thought

_We just need to get as far away from here as possible_ – I told her

_What the hell just happened?_ – Embry thought

_I wish I knew Em_ – I replied

_Dude, Nessie is a vamp hybrid and the witches wanted to kill her, what's so confusing about that?_ – Seth thought like a smart ass, after hearing everything that went down from inside my mind.

We ran for hours but we had no idea if witches could track the way we do, but we figured that either way, we needed to find some shelter so we could rest and get some questions from Ness.

Nessie had been quiet the whole time, and at some point, she slouched over and fell asleep. I was carful as I ran, trying to remain as steady as possible so I didn't jostle her too much, afraid that she was going to fall off me. We found an old abandoned cabin in the woods, and to our luck, there were some tattered clothes hanging on a broken clothes line so they phased and dressed before Leah and Seth came to carefully take Nessie off my back so I could phase myself. Embry broke the lock on the door and I took Nessie from Seth before we all went in. There was a small living room, with an even smaller bedroom in the back and that's where I took Ness to lay her down.

"Is she ok, I've never seen her sleep so deeply before?" I asked as Leah came in behind me.

"It's been a pretty eventful day, she must be exhausted." Leah tried assuring me quietly.

We left her alone to sleep and went out to the living room to discuss some kind of game plan.

"Alright, so we can't go back to the school, the witches will strike at us immediately and with their little electrical shock thing, I'm not so sure we can beat them." Leah said

"Ok, so did Greg survive or not? And what the hell did Nessie do to him?" Embry asked

"I think she healed him somehow." Leah offered

"I thought vamp spit was venomous, does that mean that Greg will be a vamp now too?" Seth asked

"Nessie is not venomous." I said coldly

"Really, how do you know? Did she bite you?" Embry asked me

"No." I said quickly. "I don't know how I know, I just do." I told them forcefully.

"Jake, are you OK?" Leah asked concerned

"No, Leah. I'm definitely not Ok. I just found out that the person I love more than anything in the world is a vampire hybrid, and I just watched her lick some guy's bloody wound, which she inflicted. This is pretty much the worst day of my existence and I have no idea what to do now." I didn't mean to be rude; I was just so overwhelmed that I couldn't think straight.

We talked for a few hours trying to make sense of everything, but we were missing so much of the puzzle that I knew we needed to talk with Nessie before we could figure everything out. Everyone was tired, but we had to make sure someone stayed awake so we could keep a lookout, Embry offered to take the first watch.

Leah took the couch, so Seth and I spread out across the floor but I laid awake obsessing over the fact that there was a vampire was just in the next room.

"Jake, do you want me to sleep in the bedroom with Nessie, just to keep extra tabs on her?" Leah asked quietly

"No Leah, I don't want anyone to be alone with her right now, I'm just having a hard time being very trusting with her at the moment. We have no idea what the hell a hybrid like that is capable of, and I'm not willing to risk it. Thanks though."

"Yeah, like the way she looked when she ripped Greg's throat out, man she was freaky." Seth agreed. My pack didn't witness it first hand, but they saw it in my mind.

"That's ridiculous, I've shared a room with her for months, and she never once tried to hurt me or anything. Jake, this is Nessie we're talking about, not some random hybrid creature that has an ulterior motive to kill everyone." Leah said.

"Look, I get that, trust me I do, but I can't ignore the facts. She was born to a large vamp coven, I witnessed her licking the blood off Greg's neck, and she is way stronger than I ever thought possible." I told her.

"Ok Jake, let's talk about that again. After she licked the blood, the wound healed, maybe that was what she was trying to do, heal him. And if that's the case, she's a freaking saint. I know if someone went after my life like that, I sure as hell wouldn't try to save him."

"I know Ok, this is all completely new to me and I just need time to adjust. We need to talk to her and get to know her as a hybrid, instead of the human she was pretending to be."

I realized then that no matter how tired I was, I would never be able to sleep vulnerably knowing Nessie was alone in the next room, so I got up off the floor and went to the room. I told myself that I was worried about my packs safety having a vampire hybrid there, but in reality, I was worried about her safety just as much knowing that it was in my packs nature to want to kill her. I trusted them of course, especially Leah, but if I had such a strong desire to kill her at first, than I can imagine what they would want to do.

I shut the door behind me, and just stared at her for a moment. God she was beautiful; but then again, most vamps are, it was part of their luring tactic. I laid down on the small bed next to her and just wrapped my arms around her securely. There was no way she would be able to get out of my embrace without me knowing it, no matter how deep I was sleeping.

The next morning, it took me a few moments to realize that it wasn't all just a horrible nightmare, and then I opened my eyes slowly.

"Oh Crap!" I was slightly startled at the sight of Nessie just sitting on the end of the bed, staring at me. How the hell did she get out from under my arm?

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." She said quietly.

"You didn't scare me; I was just taken by surprise, that's all." I told her quickly

"Ok, so ask."

"Ask what?" I said confused

"Anything, everything, what do you want to know."

"What did you do to Greg? Is he going to be a vamp now too?" I knew my pack wanted to be present during my questioning, but I could still hear them snoring in the living room, and she was offering answers now, so I refused to wait any longer for them.

"No, he won't be a vampire, I'm not venomous." I knew it. "But like how vampire venom heals before it changes someone, my…spit, or whatever, can do the same. I never killed anyone before and I didn't want to just let him die when I could prevent it." Nessie explained, but I didn't even have to ask her anything else, because she just started listing all of her hybrid attributes. "I'm strong, but not as strong as a vampire, I heal quickly if I am injured, I stopped aging last year and now I'm immortal too. I do drink animal blood, but I can eat human food as well, and like Nigel, I killed my mother when I was born. A hybrid is just too strong for a human's body, even as an infant."

"Ok, well, who were you talking to on the phone all those times when you said it was your mom?"

"Oh, that was my mom. My dad turned her after I was born, but she did actually die first and my dad and grandfather had to do CPR to bring her back. It was absolutely terrifying and I was so confused at the time, but now that I'm fully matured I understand it better"

"Wait, you remember when you were a baby?" I asked confused

"I remember every second of my life, even before I was born."

"Damn" I didn't know what else to say about that.

Nessie took a deep breath, and looked at me waiting to see if I had any more questions. I looked into her eyes, not exactly sure what I was searching for, but then I noticed something that worried me.

"Why are your eyes so dark today?" I asked her. Usually they were a warm chocolate color, but today they were almost black and had dark circles under them; I knew that vampire's eyes darkened when they were thirsty.

"Oh, don't worry about it, I'm fine." She said

"No you're not. Do you need blood?" I was amazed how easy it was for me to ask her that. I really thought I would never be able to handle the idea of her being a bloodsucker, but seeing her looking so unhealthy scared me and all I wanted was for her to be OK, regardless of what she needed to do to get that way.

"I don't need blood, but if I don't eat every few hours I get like this." She said

"I don't get it, most of the time you do eat a ton, but there are other times where you hardly eat at all?"

"When I do…go hunting, then I don't feel like eating for a while." She told me.

" I never smelled your scent in the forest, I would have known if you were out there hunting, you said you don't eat humans right?" I asked realizing that even if she said that she did, I still wouldn't turn my back on her, in fact, I'd probably roll up my sleeve and offer her my own blood if it would make her feel better.

"I never went around the campus. A few miles on the other side of town, there's a game reserve and I usually go there. I told Nigel to go there too, but he must have been too thirsty to go that far that day. He hates human food, so he only eats it when absolutely necessary so he probably waited too long in between feedings and no, I don't hunt humans."

"So you don't hunt often then? You eat a lot more than not." I asked

"When I'm only on human food, I need to eat a lot because I burn the calories quickly. When I was little, I practically only hunted because I hated human food too, but for the past couple years I knew I wanted to go to school so I tried focusing my diet on primarily solid food, so I could blend in better. I'm stronger on blood, so every once in a while I would start feeling a little too weak so I would drink a buck or something, and get back to my full strength."

"And you haven't eaten in a while, and I'm guessing it's been a while since you've hunted too?" I said

"I've never gone this long without some kind of sustenance, but I'm feeling Ok right now."

"No way, we need to get you something to eat. There's no food around and it's too dangerous to go into town right now, I'm sure Greg has his full strength back by now and is searching for us, so we need to get you some blood."

"No, I know you don't trust me enough to let me hunt alone, and there is no way I want you witnessing that."

"Believe it or not, but I have hunted and eaten many animals in my time. I lived as a wolf for years without ever phasing back to human, so hunting and eating animals raw is not a big deal to me. Besides, I'm hungry too, and animals are our only choice of food right now. But I will have to convince Leah, she hates eating that way."

"Ok, so we're all going hunting?" She asked

"Looks like it."

*******Please Review**** (Cullens are coming soon- remember, Jake saw Bella eight years ago, so he would never think she could have a daughter that was seventeen, and that's how old he thinks Ness is)***


	15. Love and Dinner

**Changing Tides**

Ch 15 – Love and Dinner

…..

"Ok guys, time to go find some grub" I told my pack. They were all just starting to wake up for the morning.

"Oh, please tell me you don't mean eating woodland creatures?" Leah whined.

"Come on Lee, it's our best option at the moment. Remember to let your instincts take over and just think like a wolf." I told her.

"Hey Ness, you coming hunting with us?" Seth asked excitedly as Nessie came out of the bathroom.

"Uhh, do you guys mind? Because I can wait and go later." She said.

"Yes she's coming; she needs to eat just as much as the rest of us." I said ignoring her self-sacrificing comment.

"Cool, just stay away from wolves, because it's kind of offensive to us." Embry said.

"I..I would never…"

"Don't listen to him Nessie, he's just a moron." Leah said.

"Ok, let's just go." I told them.

We all went outside, and Leah went to the other side of the cabin to get undressed before phasing.

"Ok honey, just follow me and stay close. I'll go slowly so you don't fall behind and when you see or smell something you like, then just let me know and I'll follow you." I told her before undressing and phasing.

"Uhh, you may have seen Jake naked on many occasions, but do you mind turning around or something?" Embry asked Ness, so she did.

Seth and Embry phased and the five of us took off. I thought about letting Ness ride on my back again, but I knew she wouldn't be able to hunt from that position, so I trotted at her pace while my pack ran ahead.

_Stay together and I'll hang back with Nessie_ – I told them. I knew that our smell wasn't the same as normal animals, but I figured that the less of us to get in the way of her ability to sniff out her prey, the better. But more than anything, while hunting in animal form with Nessie by my side, I was actually feeling very territorial and I didn't want the other wolves vying for the same game as my mate. It was a strange and unfamiliar feeling, but I couldn't shake it.

Nessie noticed that we were separating, but she never questioned it, she just followed me without missing a step. I wasn't going nearly as fast as the others were, but it still would have been too fast for a human to keep up with, so I was utterly impressed with her speed and lack of exhaustion.

We came across a large herd of elk so I slowed to a stop and crouched down trying to gesture Nessie to go ahead. She understood what I meant, but she seemed to hesitate.

"I don't want to, you go first." She told me.

I shook my head and pushed her forward with my snout trying to encourage her to begin. Finally she huffed and reluctantly stalked forward. She was completely silent as she walked and remained hidden from the sight of her prey. My heart started beating out of my chest when I saw her zeroing in on the largest buck with the biggest antlers. It went against my nature to sit there and just watch her readying herself to go against such a large animal. I knew she needed it, but I really just wanted to catch it myself and bring it back to her.

She began her attack, but as she charged at a speed ten times faster than I thought she was capable of, she changed course. She ran out of the little clearing we were in with the herd, and went back into the trees. I immediately started racing after her, and even at full speed I had a hard time catching up to her. I stopped dead in my tracks because her scent completely disappeared and I looked around confused as to where she could possibly have gone. I started to panic thinking that the witches must have gotten to her somehow, but then I heard a rustling above me, so I looked up and saw Nessie thirty feet up in the tree, draining a mountain lion. _Oh right, she said during our twenty questions game that mountain lion was her favorite animal. Now I'm grateful that she didn't say wolf._

I was glad that I didn't witness her actual strike on the cat, I most certainly would have had a heart attack and I wouldn't have been able to control myself from jumping in between them. I waited below for her to finish and when she did, she jumped lightly to the ground in front of me.

"Did you get a buck?" She asked casually. I was amazed how much she looked completely better right away. Her eyes were back to normal, and she had a rosy warmth to her cheeks that was completely breathtaking.

"Was that Ok? I know you wanted me to get the elk, but I smelled the mountain lion and I couldn't pass it up." She asked unsure of herself. I was concerned before on how I would feel about her after witnessing such an inhuman act, but for some strange odd reason, I fell in love with her all over again. The imprint was the same, but now it was like I was seeing the real her for the first time, the her that I was meant to be with and would spend forever loving because she would never grow old and neither will I. I would never see her as anything but amazing again, and even the way she hunted was beautiful. I knew I could actually spend all day in the forest just watching her hunt, because there wasn't a single part of her that wasn't perfect.

I hated that she was so worried about what I would think after seeing her like that, so I phased quickly, grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her into me for a quick but passionate kiss. "I love you, so much." I said then kissed her again, before phasing back to wolf.

She stood there stunned for a minute, but then smiled and the whole world seemed to brighten a little in response. It was the first time that I kissed her and said those words since I found out the truth, and I knew for a fact that I would never go that long again and I hoped she knew that I would always love her no matter what.

"I love you too, but you need to eat now." She said sweetly.

When I didn't move, she led the way back to where we left the herd of elk, and sat on a rock waiting for me to make a kill of my own. I caught the large buck easily and started eating, of course when Ness was finished with her meal she was perfectly clean, but when I was done, I was a complete mess. When I lived as a wolf before, I would try to find a river to wash myself off in, but I didn't know where one was and I didn't want to leave Ness to go look for one. She got up from the rock she was sitting on, and came over to where I was.

"Remember when I said that the hot pink tie was sexy? Well I was so wrong." She said with a smile. Was she actually hitting on me? I guess being covered in blood would be attractive to a vampire hybrid, but hey, I really didn't care. I phased again and pulled her against me locking ourselves and our lips together. We crashed to the forest floor, and it only took me a second to get her as unclothed as I was and for the first time, I didn't worry about holding back out of fear of hurting her. I knew I could completely let go and she would be fine, better then fine, and in fact she just wanted me even more.

"Jake, your pack is going to get worried." Ness said as we laid there catching our breaths.

"No, I'm pretty sure they heard my intentions before I phased out." I disagreed with her, feeling amazingly numb.

She rolled over so she way lying on my chest, and kissed my neck temptingly resulting in a replay of our most recent activity. It was pure ecstasy.

Finally we were able to pull away from each other, and we headed back to the cabin. I felt like all barriers that once stood between us, were so long past and completely destroyed. I loved her more than anything and her being a hybrid would never be an issue for me again. I don't know how I changed so quickly, but I was grateful that I did, and my trust in her was stronger than it ever was before.

She took the lead on the way back to the cabin, and she ran much faster than I would have thought she was capable of again, but at this point, I was long past being surprised at anything she did. I phased in front of the cabin and got dressed before going inside. I knew my pack was already back, because I heard them phase out while we were running back.

"What now boss?" Embry asked as soon as we got inside.

"We need to take advantage of the light and run as far west as possible before we stop again." I told them knowing we didn't have any extra time to waste.

"So are we headed towards home then?" Leah asked

"I think that would be best. We don't just have Greg and his three lackeys to worry about, they come from witching families so if they get their relatives involved, then we will need extra support too." I told them.

"Have you talked to Sam yet and told him what's going on?" Embry asked

"No, not yet. The last time I talked to him was last week when we spoke about Nigel being a hybrid, but Emily is due to have the baby any day now, so Sam's been having the younger wolves do most of the patrolling and I'm not connected to any of them mentally." I explained.

"So this is going to be quite the surprise visit then." Embry stated.

"Hey, I think we all need to take a second and congrats Nessie on her amazing kill. Good job Ness, that was hella cool." Seth said enthusiastically and changing the subject. I knew while I was watching her hunt that my pack was watching with me through my mind; so I wasn't surprised when Seth commented on it, of course he would think a mountain lion as prey would be cool.

"Uhh, thanks…I think" Nessie said a little unsure.

We decided to tie our current cloths on our leg before we took off, because we had no idea where we would stop again. Since we just ate, we ran most of the day only stopping when we crossed a river so we could get a drink. Nessie was fast, but not quite as fast as we were, so she rode on my back most of the time. When we stopped again for the night, we decided to just camp out outside, because we weren't as lucky as before and couldn't find a cabin. We weren't as far from a city, but we didn't have any money with us to rent a hotel room for the night, so we really didn't have any other choice.

The rest of my pack decided to stay in wolf form as they slept, but I wanted my arms around Ness so I phased. It was December so I worried about her getting cold, but she never did and that's when I felt so stupid for never realizing before that she had a much hotter body temperature than any normal human; it wasn't as hot as mine, but I definitely should have noticed it. I wondered why that was, I would have thought that a vampire hybrid would be colder than a normal human because vampires are cold, but I guess that was an unanswerable question.

At some point in the middle of the night, I woke and immediately started panicking because Nessie was gone. I phased right away so I could trace her scent better, and took off as fast as I could in that direction. Her trail led to the edge of a small town, and continued on, but I couldn't follow it anymore because my clothes shredded off of me when I phased and I couldn't go into town in the wolf form that I was in. I shouted at my pack mentally to wake them, and they came running to help me, but before they arrived, Nessie came walking towards me with a confused and guilty look on her face.

"Hey." She said casually

I huffed at her, so she continued.

"I'm sorry, I should have told you I was leaving, but I thought you wouldn't let me go"

I huffed again. _There is no way I would have let her go._

"I know babe, but I really am sorry. I came to town because I needed to call my dad; I told you he would freak if I didn't call him regularly and I can't have him going to that school looking for me. And I want to be completely honest with you, I went out to call him while you were sleeping last night too, but I swear, I won't leave again without telling you." She said quickly.

I'm really going to have to put some kind of alarm system on her while I sleep, but at least she came clean about it, of course I doubt she would have if I didn't catch her. I couldn't really be upset with her for it though, she knows I still have issues with vampires, regardless of how much I love her and don't care what she is. I know she still worries about me ever coming face to face with her family, because it's in both species' nature to want to kill each other, only Nessie is truly amazing enough to break through all species prejudice barriers.

I did have to note just how amazing it was that Nessie was able to read my huffs. Even though she didn't speak wolf and she's not a mind reader, we were so closely connected that we didn't really need words to understand each other.

I crouched down low, and without even pausing for a second, she climbed on my back, and I took off running. It was still dark, but since I woke up my pack and we were all already on the move, I figured we would just get an early start.

We made excellent time running all day, before having to stop in North Dakota because we ran out of forest. Nessie and Leah ran into town so they could find some clothes for me, and Ness needed to call her dad again. When they came back, Seth, Em, and I got dressed and we all ventured into town. Nessie and Leah decided they wanted to stay in a hotel for the night, so Ness pulled out a wad of cash from her pocket.

"Uhh, not that I'm complaining or anything, but where did you get the money, I thought you left all your cards and things back at the school?" I asked her

"Oh, I did. But I lived here briefly a few years ago, and my family always stores petty cash around the places they stay, just in case. Don't worry, no one can track this." She explained.

"What kind of hiding spots do vamps have for money?" Embry asked

"It was in a safe in that bank over there. They don't ask for any Id, you just have to know the combination so they wouldn't contact my parents about the withdraw and they'll never know I took it."

"Won't they come and check on it?" Seth asked

"No, I'm sure my family doesn't have any desire to come back to this area of the US, we were only here for a couple of months and they didn't like it here very much."

We planned on keeping it simple and just rent a cheap room for all of us to share, but Ness decided that since we had the money, we might as well use it. She rented three rooms, Leah desperately needed some time to herself, so she got her own room, Seth and Embry had to share, and Ness and I got the third. I think more than anything, we were all just grateful for a shower.

We all were way too comfortable in the human accommodations, that we over slept the next morning and none of us seemed to care. When we finally did wake up, we all met in the tiny lobby and Ness once again called her parents.

"So, what are you telling them?" I asked her after she hung up. She usually went to off to talk to them alone, so I couldn't hear her conversations.

"Well, I started out telling them that everything was fine and I was still at school, but my mom usually can tell when I'm lying so I had to come clean."

"You told them that you are with wolf people and you're running from witches?" I asked in disbelief.

"No, not exactly, I just said that I needed to get away from school for a while and I'm on a road trip with some friends. But I think my dad is starting to get suspicious, so I'm going to go over to that used car lot and buy a car, that way if they do decide to follow my scent, it'll end here. I really don't want them following us all the way to your home with all those other vamp killing wolves there."

"Yeah, you're right, that wouldn't be good. I think Sam has had enough forced peace with a vampire coven then he could possibly take." I said quickly.

"Jake, are you sure that me being there will be Ok? I mean you really hate me for what I am, so much so that I'm sure you would have killed me by now if it wasn't for that imprint thingy, I can just imagine how they'll feel."

"Baby, I love you for you, and I absolutely hate myself for the way I acted. I treated you horribly and I'll spend the rest of forever trying to make it up to you. But as far as the rest of the wolves go, they can't touch you because of the imprint; all imprintees are protected by all the wolves and it's against our natural law for any to be purposely harmed. Look how easy my pack accepted you; it won't be any different for the rest. I'm just a moron who has a bitter past with vampires, that's all. I'm so sorry, I'll never make you doubt me again, I promise." I tried assuring her.

Nessie bought an old VW van and we all piled in. I was slightly surprised by her car choice at first knowing how expensive and uppity her taste was, but then I remembered the fact that she loves fixing up old cars and I figured this would become a future project, preferably one we would work on together. I couldn't wait to see her bent over the engine with a wrench in her hand, that's if I don't die from happiness first. I couldn't dream up someone more perfect for me.

We decided to drive straight to Washington without taking anymore overnight breaks. We would all split the driving and hopefully arrive in just a day and a half.

*******Please Review*******


	16. It's Time

**Changing Tides**

Ch 16 – In the words of Alice Cullen "It's Time, It's Time"

….

The mood in the van shifted as we crossed the Washington state line. My pack who was very excited to be going home at first, seemed to fall into identical worried masks as the one that had been plaguing Nessie for the past few weeks. Behind all the jokes and playful banter, all three of them have actually grown very close and extremely protective of my Nessie and I knew they were all concerned as to what would happen if Sam decided that she was a threat. Despite what I said to Ness, the natural law of not harming another's imprint was really just a theory. We never had a situation like this one and there would have never been a need to test that theory in the first place, because all previous imprintees have been human. In fact, all other imprintees have been native in decent also, so the fact that she was neither human nor Native, made me kind of confused.

"Ok, I have to ask. Why did you let the witches touch you, if you knew they would figure out the truth?" Seth asked Nessie. I'm actually glad he asked, I hadn't thought about it much since everything went all crazy, but it was a good question. I thought back to all the times Nessie avoided the witches and shied away from any physical contact with them whatsoever, so what changed to make her let her guard down?

"I didn't let them touch me, after the big win, they jumped into the group of cheerleaders I was in, and they touched me then. I was actually really shocked when it happened because I have better senses then to let something like that happen." Ness explained.

"Bastard" Leah said in response, referring to Greg.

Nessie and I were sitting next to each other in the back, and as soon as we saw the road sign reading Forks, 35mi  she leaned into me nervously looking for comfort, and I responded by wrapping my arm around her and rubbing her shoulder reassuringly. I kissed the top of her head and whispered "I love you" and she relaxed into me.

"Jake, shouldn't we stop and call ahead just to give them some warning? I mean just so they don't freak when a..someone…I mean, when they see Ness, they won't go into tribal protection mode." Seth asked full of concern.

"No, I think it would be best for them to meet her first, before we drop the bomb on them. It's not like they will be able to tell what she is right-away anyway, I mean we couldn't; not even Jake and he was sleeping with her, so there is no way Sam or any of the rest of them would be able to tell either." Embry put in his opinion before I had a chance to answer.

"As much as I hate to admit it, I agree with Embry. I think if Sam sees her first and knows she's not a threat, then he'll be more likely to be cool when we do tell them the truth." Leah added.

"I think you guys are wrong, Sam appreciates honesty and he won't like us lying about this. Look, he's a cool guy and if we just explain everything, he's going to listen and I'm sure he'll understand." Seth disagreed.

"Dude, you need to listen to Leah, she used to sleep with the man before he shacked up with her cousin, I think she knows him a little better than we do." Embry told Seth. We all just glared at Embry for being such an insensitive jerk, so he said "What? It's the truth." Leah picked up the water bottle she had next to her, and chucked it at his head as hard as she could. Seth followed her lead, and threw his own bottle at him in order to defend his sister. It was a good thing that Em was a wolf-man with heightened senses, because he was the one driving at the moment.

"Ok, enough children." I scolded them. "I think Embry is a moron, but sorry Seth, I agree with him on this one. We need to just keep a low profile for a while until I have time to explain everything to Sam in person." I decided.

We finally made it to Forks and continued on for the twelve miles it took to get to LaPush. My dad's house was still being rented out, so we dropped Embry off at his parent's house, and then we went to Seth and Leah's mom's place to visit her for a while. On top of having two wolf kids, Sue was on the tribal council so she was aware of all things monster, and we were hoping she would have some kind of knowledge on witches further than what Nessie had already told us.

Sue was more than happy to see us, but she grew very concerned by the talk of witches.

"I don't know anything about them. I do know about medicine men and witch doctors, but nothing about actual witch covens. I'm really sorry you guys are all mixed up in this, how did you become enemies with them in the first place?" Sue asked concerned.

"It's a long story mom." Seth said.

"Well I sure am glad you imprinted Jake, your dad would have been very pleased as well."

"Uhh, yeah, I've never been so happy." I said honestly as I squeezed Nessie's hand. We didn't plan on telling anyone the truth about Ness until after I had a chance to speak with Sam, so Sue didn't know either.

"So what's your family like Nessie?" Sue asked her and Seth chocked on his drink as a response. Seth and Leah never had to lie about anything to their mom, and they knew it would be hard.

"Well, my dad's a doctor and my mom is a lawyer in New York." Nessie started explaining the same story that she originally told me. I wondered now why she chose those particular aliases for her vampire parents. I should probably tell her that having both parents with such prestigious jobs like that, wasn't very believable.

"Hey kids" Charlie just walked in from work and was just as excited to see all of us as Sue was.

"Hey Charlie, how's the crime rate hanging?" Seth said while holding up his hand for a hi-five, which Charlie matched. He went over to Leah and gave her a hug before turning to me.

"Jacob, well this is a pleasant surprise, how are you doing kiddo." He asked before coming over and giving me a huge uncharacteristic hug.

"Um, pretty good at the moment, how have you been?" I asked him. No matter how much I hated Bella, I would always have a soft spot for her dad. Charlie was extremely quiet and reserved, but he loved his only child with a fierceness and didn't deserve what she did to him.

"Well, I'm not complaining, Sue keeps me on my toes, but that's how I stay so fit." He said while rubbing his pot belly. "Who's your friend?"

"I'm sorry, this is my girlfriend Nessie; Ness, this is Charlie Swan." I introduced them.

Charlie went to shake Nessie's hand, but then he looked at Nessie square in the face and froze.

"Honey is everything Ok?" Sue asked him. Charlie didn't respond, he just stared at Nessie as if he was seeing a ghost, it was very strange. "Charlie?" Sue asked again, finally he broke out of the trance he was in.

"Oh sorry, I…you just remind me so much of someone…I have to go." Charlie said before walking up the stairs and shutting his bedroom door behind him.

"What was that about?" Seth asked, the rest of us just shrugged not having an answer.

"His daughter died a few years ago and it's still hard for him when he sees certain girls that remind him of her in some way, please don't take it personally." Sue told Nessie.

"Oh, no, it's Ok" Ness said quietly.

"Hey, you guys must be starving, I'm sure it was a long trip?" Sue asked, and we all were, so she made a huge spread and we all chowed down.

"So Jake, where will you and Nessie be staying when you're here?" Sue asked

"Um, probably at Rachel's but I'm not sure, I haven't called her yet to ask." I told her

"Oh, well, Nessie can bunk with Leah and you can room with Seth if you'd like?" She offered.

"Mom, Jake and Ness are adults, you don't have to separate them like a couple of hormone driven teenagers. Besides with the witches after us, Jake is having a hard time being separated from his imprint." Leah said lying about the _Ness being an adult_ thing.

"I understand that Leah, but it's not like I'm putting them on opposite sides of town, they will be right across the hall from each other and I don't have a guest room to let them stay together." Sue told her daughter.

"Oh you know what, that's very generous of you Mrs. Swan, but I think we're just going to rent a hotel room. Thank you so much for the offer though." Nessie told Sue.

"Please call me Sue, and are you sure? I hate you having to pay for a hotel." Sue said

"No, it's fine, we actually don't mind hotels." Nessie assured her

"Ok, but I just want to recommend _Quileute Oceanside Resort_, It's the nicest in town and the price is reasonable. But it is a top tourist spot, so you just have to be careful, if you know what I mean?" She said suggestively to me, meaning _don't phase anywhere near the hotel_.

"Sure thing Sue. We better be going if we want to get a room before it get too full." I told her

"Ok, you're going to come back later right?"

"Yeah, definitely. Seth, Leah, I'll call with our room number so you can get a hold of me if anything comes up. I'm going to go to Sam's around six if you guys will join me?" I asked them.

"We'll be there boss." Seth said

The room was like its own little cabin, which was nice, but Sue was right, it was pretty full of what we thought were tourist, which I thought was strange for December. We later learned that there was some kind of Native tribal convention thing going on.

"So do you want to go buy some dinner somewhere, or do you want to go hunting again?" We ate at Sue's but I know Nessie was too embarrassed to eat as much as she should.

"Um, I would say go eat somewhere, but I really want to get to know the area a bit." She said, which is exactly what my answer would have been if I was going to be staying in an unfamiliar area for a while.

We took off into my home forest and it felt so good to be back. When I was here over the Summer, I refused to go into the woods because it reminded me too much of Bella, but now that all those negative feelings were gone, I could enjoy the forest that I grew up loving once again.

Most of the larger animals were hiding from the cold, but we did come across a good sized deer.

I nudged Ness to go get it. Even though there was only one, we both knew that she needed it more, I would be happier with a Big Mac anyway. She drained the deer quickly and I actually couldn't help but laugh my deep wolfy laugh when she brought the carcass back to me.

"It's blood free, but there is still plenty of meat on it. Besides, the last time you hunted you made a mess, at least now it will be cleaner." She said with a smile. She was right, and I should have thought about it last time, we never had to catch separate meals, we could always share. I really was in the mood for a burger, but there was something very domestic but animalistic at the same time, about eating the animal she caught and drained, and it was terribly attractive to me.

When I was done eating, we decided that our _after hunt workout_ that we did last time, would be a pretty good tradition to keep, so I phased and had another forest love session.

"Babe, we should probably get back. I need to call my pack and head over to Sam's." I told her even though all I really wanted to do was lay there forever with her.

"Ok" She said before getting up and dressing while I phased. We headed back to the hotel, when Ness stopped and looked like she smelled something.

I huffed confusedly at her, so she said. "Oh it's nothing, just a familiar scent." She said before looking down an old overgrown path. "Hold on babe, I have to check something real quick" And she took off running. I was concerned so of course I followed her. I knew this path well, and I knew exactly where she was heading, she must have smelled vampire and wanted to check it out.

We reached the abandoned large white house, and she just stared at it for a long time before walking towards the stairs. I grabbed the back of her shirt gently with my teeth, trying to make her understand that going inside was not an option, but she pulled away from me and continued to the door. She broke the lock easily and went in. I stayed outside because I had no desire to go into the old vamp lair, and I wouldn't fit through the door anyway. She was only inside for a few minutes, before she reappeared and seemed like she was ready to leave. We both ran back to the edge of the forest to where I stashed my clothes, and I got dressed before walking towards our hotel room.

"Babe, why did you go in that house?" I asked her

"Vampires used to live there." I wasn't sure if she meant it as a statement or a question, but I took it as the latter.

"Yeah, they moved away like eight years ago or something like that."

"Why didn't you and the pack attack them, how could a vampire coven live so closely without a full out war?" She asked quietly, confused.

"Well, the leader was a gentle guy…." She stared at me shocked that I would ever call a vampire gentle, I just smiled and continued. "He made a treaty with my great grandfather back when he was alpha, and we couldn't fight them unless they broke the treaty." I explained

"So why'd they leave?"

"Well, they broke the treaty and didn't want a war."

"Ok, how did they break the treaty?" She asked concerned

"The treaty stated that they couldn't hunt on Quileute land or bite a human for any reason. Well, remember how Sue said that Charlie's daughter died?" She nodded. "She didn't actually die, she married one of the vampires that used to live here and she went off with him to be turned. It doesn't matter that she wanted it, they still broke the treaty by biting her, so they had to leave." I explained.

"So, Charlie's daughter is now a vampire?"

"Yep"

"But he thinks she's dead?"

"Yep"

"He thought I looked like her." She said then burrowed her eyes into mine as if she was trying to tell me something, but then we heard the howling.

"What's that?" She asked me quickly

"Uhh, wolf meeting. Come on, let's go."

"The hotel is right there, I'll just wait for you there."

"Lock the door and stay inside." I told her. I hated leaving her, but it wasn't one of my pack members howling and I wasn't ready to bring her around anyone in Sam's pack just yet.

I ran to the forest and phased to see what was going on, but I had to wait until Sam phased in so I could hear what the problem was.

_Sam? What's going on?_ – I asked when I felt him linked to me

_Jake, it's good to have you back in town, I got a call from Paul a few hours ago and he said he ran into Embry in town. Apparently Rachel is pretty pissed you didn't go straight there, she really wants to meet Nessie_. – Sam said. Sam knew that I imprinted because I told him soon after it happened, which meant that his pack knew and so of course Paul told my sister, but none of them know that she's a hybrid.

_It's good to be back, I was planning to bring Nessie around to meet everyone tomorrow, so Rachel is just going to have to wait. So what's going on?_ – I asked him

_Man, I really didn't want to have to tell you this, but Jared ran into someone that I figured you would never want to run into again, so I just wanted to warn you that he's around and he's looking for you._ – He told me

_Okay, who?_ – I asked

_Edward Cullen_.- Sam said

_What! Why the hell is he here?_ – I asked angrily

_He said he needed to talk to you_. – Sam said calmly.

_Why the hell would he ever want to talk to me, and what the hell makes him think that I would give him a chance to talk before I kill him. And why didn't Jared take him out himself?_ – I asked seriously getting upset. The vamp that was responsible for ruining years of my life was in town, and he actually had the nerve to want to talk to me. But what confused me more than anything, was why now?

_Jake, look. The Cullens are very strong, and they still maintain a human free diet, so there really isn't any reason for engaging in an attack on them. Bella made her choice, and it's not worth the fight_. – Sam tried reasoning with me.

_Was Bella with him?_ – I asked – '_Cause that would be really stupid, everyone here thinks she's dead_, _especially her grieving father that I just saw earlier_.

_No, he was alone._

_Moron – _I thought, mostly to myself.

_Hey Jake, Collin just phased in and said that Edward is waiting at the treaty line and is demanding to see you, otherwise he's going to cross into LaPush_. – Sam said

_Let him, and finally we can relieve him of that huge, conceded, pretty boy, head of his. Besides there is no more treaty line, because there is no more treaty_. – I said cockily. Despite my words though, my curiosity was getting the better of me and I decided to go talk to him. At the very least, I would have the pleasure of fulfilling one of my long time desires of killing that disgusting creep.

I went to the line where I knew he would be, and I saw him there leaning against a tree.

_Bloodsucker_. – I greeted him coldly

"Jacob enough crap, where is she?" He said angrily

_Now, why the hell do you have your panties in a bunch for?_ – I thought smugly

"I know you brought her here, I went to the school and smelled your stench all over the place, even in her room, so I'll ask you again, where the hell is she?" He asked forcefully.

_What the hell are you talking about?_ – I asked seriously confused, was he really asking about Nessie?

"Nessie? Is that really what you call her? Why?" He asked annoyed.

_How the hell do you know Ness? What, do you vamps have a secret news system that tells you all when someone important has joined your world, or something?_ – I asked seriously

"No mutt, she's my daughter."

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	17. Falling to Pieces

**Changing Tides**

Ch 17 – _Falling to Pieces _

…

_You know Cullen; you must really think I'm stupid. Let me guess, you were bored with your disgusting existence, so you thought, 'hey I wonder what Jake is up to, maybe I can find some more ways to jack up his life'_. – I told him bitterly

"Actually no, I don't think you're stupid, I think you're an idiot. And I really don't care about your reasoning for bringing my daughter here, just tell me where she is so we can leave and go back to pretending that you don't exist." Edward said coldly.

_I've had enough of this_. – I thought before turning to walk away. Edward was a pompous ass, and I wasn't about to let him get to me. It was obvious that he was just trying to mess with me for some god knows reason, but I wasn't going to play into his games.

"I'm not messing with you Jake and this is no game, and I swear, if you don't bring me to my daughter, I will find her myself. I will not let you, or a treaty line, or any amount of mangy dogs, stand in my way." He threatened, prompting me to turn back to him.

_Fine by me, this fight is long overdue_. – I taunted him and bared my fangs.

"The number that newborn did on your ribs will be nothing mutt, I will take you down before you even realize what was happening." Edward seethed.

_Ahh, but who will be there to fix me up again. Where is Daddy Dr. Fang anyway?_ – I mocked

"Don't worry dog, I am a doctor too, but I usually only work on humans, I never did veterinarian work before, so maybe you should worry."

_Since when did you become a doctor?_

"What difference does it make to you? Tell me where my daughter is."

_And I'm assuming that Bella has a job of some sort too?_ – asked slowly.

"Yeah she's a lawyer, what do you care?"

I thought back to how Ness had said that her dad was a doctor and her mom was a lawyer, I should have known that the only vampires to have jobs like those would be the Cullens; I just thought she made the whole thing up.

My whole body went numb as everything started falling in place; everything but one thing, Nessie was seventeen, so how could she possibly be Edward and Bella's daughter?

"She's not Seventeen, she just turned eight last September. She grew fast before she stopped aging last year." Edward said bitterly.

_That's not…possible_ - I thought slowly.

"Right, like vampire's and shape shifters are?" He said sarcastically "Nothing about any of us should be possible, but that's the reality of it. Bella got pregnant on our honeymoon, and Renesmee was born a month later. She grew extremely fast, but now she's fully matured."

Renesmee?

"Yes, Renesmee, that's what her name is. Bella named her after Renee and Esme by combining their names."

What about Vanessa?

"Vanessa was the name she decided to go by, because she thought Renesmee was too unique and she wanted to blend in. And Mason was my last name when I was human, Cullen is too well known in the vampire community."

I felt sick, like my whole world just came crashing down on me again, but this time it was so much worse. How could this have happened, how could she be a Cullen of all vamps, and Bella's daughter at that? I started to get tunnel vision, as if I was going to faint or something, and I couldn't think straight anymore.

But even worse than her being a hybrid, even worse than Edward Jack Ass Cullen being her father, and even worse than my first love Bella being her mother, the fact that she was only eight years old made me want to stick my head in a meat grinder. I thought about the way that I have touched her and the things that we did together, and I felt like a disgusting pedophiliac or something.

Oh Crap, mind reading father, damn it! I looked up at Edward who was completely fuming. His livid expression looked more enraged and more evil then I ever saw him before.

_Edward, I…no, I have no excuse. I know it doesn't matter that I didn't know how old she is, or how much I love her, but I swear, if I knew…_

Edward's infuriated expression only grew with every word I thought, and I knew he was about to snap

"Get. My. Daughter. NOW!"

I was past arguing with him, and I couldn't blame him for his anger, so I turned to go get Nessie.

"If I find out that you've touched her again, I will kill you, and trust me, I will find out!" Edward yelled after me as I ran away with my tail between my legs.

CRAP, CRAP, CRAP!

I ran as fast as I could back to where I stashed my clothes, phased and got dressed, before running as fast as humanly possible back to the hotel room. And of course, she wasn't there.

"Hey man, what the hell is going on? I saw like five Cullens in between here and Forks" Seth said as he showed up in the doorway, Leah walked in behind him.

Great, they were all coming to kill me, wonderful.

"What's going on? Well let's see, Nessie is Edward and Bella's daughter, and she's eight years old and I totally let it slip in my mind that we had been having sex, and now her livid, mind reading, father wants to rip me apart."

"Damn" Seth said after a moment of silence.

"Wait how is Nessie only eight years old?"Leah asked

"Uhh, how does Nessie even exist at all? Vampires are dead, so how the hell was Edward able to father a kid in the first place. He said that Bella was only pregnant for a month, and Ness grew fast and fully matured last year." I said while my voice broke in several spots.

"Jake, calm down, you're really about to lose it." Leah said.

"Jacob" Sam just entered the room, damn it.

"Oh hey Sam." Seth greeted him, Sam ignored him.

"You're in deep crap Jake. I just spoke to Carlisle and we reestablished the treaty, but they are all very pissed at you. They want you staying away from Renesmee, and I was confused at first as too what he was talking about, but then he explained about the hybrid and how you brought her here. Why would you bring Nessie here if you knew she was a Cullen?" Sam asked angrily

"I only just found out she was a Cullen about ten minutes ago, and I only found out she was a hybrid less than a week ago when the Witches were going to kill her." I said feeling defeated

"Why didn't you tell me the truth?"

"I was planning to Sam, but this is the first time that we've actually been in the same room and I wanted to tell you in person."

"Look, I don't understand how or why you imprinted on a vampire hybrid Cullen, but you need to back down and give them some space. We don't need a war because of this." Sam ordered.

My vision started going black again and I had to sit on the bed, otherwise I was sure I would have fallen over.

"Sam, you have no business telling him what to do anymore, we are our own pack, and we will handle this ourselves." Leah told him forcefully.

"Jake, I'm going to go find Edward and talk to him, we were pretty tight once, and I think he'll listen to me." Seth offered.

"No Seth" Sam and I said at the same time, but Sam said it with a little more authority.

"Wow, Sam. Did you just use your alpha command voice on me? And look, it didn't work because you aren't my leader anymore." Seth said cockily to him, and then he turned to me. "Jake are you going to use that same voice on me?"

"No." I said quietly. As much as I didn't want him to go find Edward, I would never take away his free will by using the alpha command on him. I hated when Sam used to do that to me, and I swore I'd never do it to my pack.

"Cool, I'll be back then." Seth said then disappeared out the door.

"Damn it Jake. You're just going to let him walk up to a large group of pissed vampires alone?" Sam asked and I didn't answer him, so he turned back to Leah. "Lee, come on, you can't be Ok with your little brother doing this?"

"It's not up to me. If Jake really wanted to be an ass, he would have taken Seth's choices from him, but Jake's not like you. You know what Sam, when you decide to quite phasing to play house, Jake will still be here and he'll be the Alpha for both packs, maybe you and your subordinates should really show him more respect." Leah told Sam and then she walked out.

"Jake, the alpha voice isn't meant to be degrading; it's meant to keep certain head strong pack members from getting themselves killed." And with that, Sam left.

I couldn't believe how things got so messed up in such a short amount of time. I got into a war with a band of witches, I was a horrible Alpha, I have one of the largest known Vamp covens pissed at me, oh and the best part, I was actually sleeping with a child. Yep, I'm going to be sick.

I went outside and vomited all over the side of the cabin/hotel room. My life was completely falling to pieces and I had no idea how to fix it.

I sat outside for what seemed like hours, just completely paralyzed out of self hatred, when Seth, Leah and Embry came walking up from the beach.

"How are you doing?" Leah asked full of concern.

"Ugh!" I groaned and put my head back in my hands like the coward I was.

"Well I talked to Edward, and look I'm still alive and no broken bones or anything." Seth said, so I raised my head to look at him.

"What happened?" I asked

"Well, you were right; he definitely wants to rip your throat out. But his anger was nothing compared to Bella's. Man she went crazy, and she was going to come over here and kill you herself and it took Emmet, Jasper, and Carlisle all grabbing a hold of her to restrain her. It was actually kind of cool to see the once clumsy Bella be all strong vamp chick, and overpowering someone as big as Emmet." Seth said excitedly.

"Was Nessie there?" I asked quietly

"Oh yeah, and she was freaking out. She was all afraid that there was going to be some huge war between us. Hey, did you know that she was actually born in that house?" Seth said suddenly

"We went there earlier when we were out hunting. She seemed to know it, but she looked confused." I said mostly to myself.

"Yeah, Bella came home from their honeymoon pregnant, and she was too weak to be moved again, so she had her right upstairs in Carlisle's office. They stuck around for the three days it took for Bella to be transformed and then they took off." Seth explained.

"She probably smelled her family all through the forest too, I mean even in snow and even after years passing, vamp stench is still detectable." Embry said.

"So Seth what are the Cullens planning to do now that they have Ness back?" Leah asked.

"Well apparently Edward did run into Greg back at the school, but Greg was alone at the time so he wasn't strong enough to take down Edward. But Greg swore that he and his family wouldn't rest until Ness and all her vamp relatives are dead, so I actually think that the Cullens are going to hang out for a while until they can come up with some kind of solution to the witching problem." Seth explained.

"So Seth, none of them were pissed at you?" Embry asked

"No, why would they be, I'm not the one dating their daughter…Oh sorry Jake." Seth said.

Now I was more panicked than ever. Nessie was in even more danger from the witches than before, and I wasn't there to protect her. How was I just supposed to sit here while she faces that threat alone? I knew the Cullens were strong, but I'd never trust anyone but myself with her safety. I decided that I needed to man up and go talk to them myself.

"Hold up, where are you going?" Leah asked as I started walking toward the old Cullen house.

"I can't sit here when I know that she's in danger." I told her as I kept walking

"I don't think that's such a good idea bro, I think they all need some time to cool off." Seth said as they followed me.

"I can't wait. I need to talk to Edward and Bella, explain myself. I can't handle not being able to see Nessie right now."

"Dude it's suicide, they are going to kill you, you do know that right?" Embry said.

"Yeah I know, but I can't live without her so what's the difference? At least this way it will be quick and I'll die knowing I tried. You guys need to go back to Sam's pack, I'm sorry but I don't have a choice." I told them apologetically.

"No way, were sticking with you. Maybe the Cullens won't attack you after all, especially if you have back up." Leah said.

"Leah, I've had sex with their eight year old daughter, and Edward got a mindful of it thanks to the idiot that I am; of course they are going to attack me. And the last thing that I want happening is you guys jumping in to protect me, this doesn't have to be a battle." I told them hoping they would listen.

"So are you going to go against what you said to Sam about not taking our choices away? Because you using your alpha voice on us is the only way we're not coming with you." Seth said with conviction and Leah and Embry nodded in agreement.

"Fine, but if it turns into a fight, then you guys need to stay back and leave." I ordered them.

"Yeah Ok, sure." Embry said sarcastically.

We headed towards the woods when we were met by someone else.

"Hey, hey Quill!" Embry said excitedly before jumping at him.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" He said happily.

"Now's not a good time Quill." I told him solemnly.

"No, I heard what happened, so here I am." Quill said.

"What are you talking about?" I asked him

"Oh come on Jake, I belong with you guys, I always have. I would have come to Massachusetts with you too if it weren't for Claire. But since you're here, I'm with you." Quill said self-assuredly

"Quill, look, this could get ugly and I don't want to have to worry about messing up things for you. Think about Claire." I tried convincing him.

"I am thinking about Claire. I know how it feels to imprint on someone so young, and it can really be tough sometimes…"

"Quill, you didn't sleep with Claire." I interrupted him.

"No, she is still a kid, and from what I've heard about Nessie, she isn't a kid in any way but the number of times she's been around the sun. Look, this is my rightful pack, and I'm sticking with you." Quill said determinedly.

I wasn't in the proper frame of mind to argue anymore, so I just ignored them and continued towards the Cullen House and they all, of course, followed.

I walked in human form, because the last thing I wanted was for the Cullens to think I was there for a fight. No matter my personal feelings towards all of them, they were Nessie's family and I knew that fighting them would only hurt her, and I have already hurt her more than enough for one endless lifetime.

It didn't take long for us to walk the few miles to get there; and of course Edward heard our minds coming, so he was waiting for us on the porch with his arms crossed and his face fixed in an angry hard glare.

"Edward, I know you probably hate me more than anyone else who ever lived…"

"Probably?" Edward said incredulously

"Ok, so you _definitely_ hate me more than anyone else. But I swear, I didn't know who she is or how old she is, because I would have never…" I couldn't really finish that statement, because I still loved her more than anything and those feelings were so strong even from the beginning, that I have no idea what I would have done had I known the truth right away.

"Jake, I really don't want to hear it. Do you really think that we care how _you_ feel? All we care about is how Renesmee is feeling, and right now, she's pretty upset." He started chuckling but without humor "She actually thinks that you're little pack is a threat to us."

My heart sank at the thought of her being afraid of me again, and I just hated myself even more.

"Edward, whether you believe me or not, I truly am sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen." I said honestly.

"Of course not Jake, you never do, do you? You know I've heard in your mind so many times how you hate me for ruining your life, when you are the one who repeatedly comes in, disrupts and messes with mine. Bella and my relationship was strong, and yes we had our issues, I should have never left her the way that I did, but when she chose to come back to me, you chose to mess with her mind and tried to get between us. And now, you're messing around with our daughter. What, did she remind you of Bella and you decided to replace her as your new obsession, or was this just some vendetta you had for me?"

"I didn't know she was your daughter." I said starting to get angry. I couldn't believe that he actually thought I would do all of this on purpose, just as a response to my issues with them.

Edward just stared silently at me for a moment, and then he said. "Bella?" And she walked out. I used to dream so much about what it would feel like to see her again, vampire or not. I used to wonder if my feelings would have changed after seeing her as a vampire, and of course they did change. But the change wasn't a result of her _changing_; it was a result of the change that occurred within me. I wasn't that same sixteen year old naive boy, that couldn't take no for an answer. And I wasn't in love with her whatsoever anymore. Bella actually was the same Bella she has always been, except now of course she was more durable and a mother. A very protective, angry mother.

"Start explaining Jacob Black." She fumed

After hearing her voice, I definitely recognized it from her phone calls to Nessie. It was higher pitched than it was as a human, but now that I was looking at her as she spoke, I still could pick up on the familiarity of the cadence of her speaking patterns.

"Bella, I really am sorry." I said to her sincerely. She waited for me to continue. "I didn't know; and the way that I feel about her has nothing to do with you or him." I said motioning towards Edward, and he narrowed his eyes at me in response.

"So you mean to tell me that you just happened to go to the same school that she did, and you just happened to start dating her for no other reason than because you liked her?" She said in disbelief.

"No, not exactly." _Gulp_ "I imprinted on her, and I'm pretty sure I was drawn to that school because I was supposed to find her."

"He man, I think you need to quit while you're _behind_." Embry said quietly as he grabbed my arm to pull me back. It was obvious that Bella was more pissed than I ever saw her before, in fact it looked like she was about to go for my neck. And she did.

Seth phased and jumped in-between us, knocking an attacking Bella to the side so her teeth couldn't make contact with my throat. Edward didn't retaliate by going after Seth for pounding against his wife, because it was obvious that Seth was trying to stop her, not hurt her, and in that moment, Seth was the only one hurt; physically anyway.

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	18. Daddy's Little Girl

**Changing Tides**

Ch 18- _Daddy's Little Girl_

…

"Seth, I'm really sorry."

"It's Ok Bella; it's completely understandable, I think most people would have reacted the same way."

"No, it's no excuse. I can't believe I lost it like that; and I'm a lawyer, you would think I would have more grace under fire than that."

"Well, I wouldn't say that it wasn't graceful, actually I'm really impressed." Seth told Bella as we were sitting outside on the porch after Carlisle had to reset Seth's broken shoulder. He broke it when he collided with Bella, preventing her from literally ripping my throat out.

Bella cooled off, but she refused to even acknowledge my presence there, in fact, none of the Cullens paid any attention to me whatsoever. I didn't open my mouth either; the last thing I wanted to do was set Bella off again.

"Ok Seth, let's see." Carlisle said and came over to check on his injury

"Feeling better already Doc." Seth said to him enthusiastically

"It's looking well; you should be able to move it again in a few hours. So how is your mother?" Carlisle asked him.

"She's good, she and Charlie seem to be happy enough" Seth said, and Bella sighed next to him; it was obvious that she missed her father and wished she could see him again.

Something made me look up, and I locked eyes with Ness as she was peering out a window on the second floor. We stared at each other for a minute before she disappeared again.

"You guys must be starving, you've been here for a couple of hours and I remember how hungry you get." Esme said as she came out with a huge platter of food. Seth immediately dug in, but the rest hesitated. Esme seemed hurt by my packs lack of trust in her, so she put the trey down and went back into the house.

"Thanks!" Seth called after her. "Come on guys, this is actually really good" Seth encouraged the others.

Bella looked at my pack who were all staying close to the line of trees surrounding the yard, and must have thought that her presence was stopping them from eating, so she got up and went into the house leaving just me and my pack outside.

"Hey, why don't you guys go home, everything seems to have settled down here and if Edward hasn't killed me yet, then he probably won't, at least not tonight." I told my pack. It was starting to get late, and I knew they were all tired.

"Nope, we're not leaving without you." Leah said, so I agreed to leave with them.

When we got back to LaPush, they all went home, and so did I; my home just happened to be back at the Cullen house. The house was dark, and if I didn't know any better, I would have thought it was empty, but I could hear their low talking from inside. Vamps didn't need lights; in fact I bet they didn't even notice that it was dark. I went up to the porch and just sat on the bench; I hated not being able to see Ness, but this was as close as I was going to get for a while.

I must have dozed off sometime, because I opened my eyes to the bright sun blaring in my eyes. I sat up and noticed that I had been lying on a white fluffy pillow. My first thought was that Esme brought it out to me, but then I smelled it, and the only vamp smell there was Bella. I thought briefly on how she managed to get it under my head without waking me.

Rose and Emmet came out of the house and didn't even give me a second look before disappearing in the trees, they must be going hunting. A few hours later, Carlisle came out.

"I just got off the phone with Seth, he said he was feeling much better." Carlisle told me.

"Uhh, thanks Doc." I said and then Carlisle went to his car, and drove off somewhere.

I sat there all day and the Cullens all passed by me at some point, and pretended that I wasn't even there. All but Nessie, of course. They seemed to be keeping her inside, but every once in a while I would see her look down from her room, and we would lock eyes. Night fell again, and like the night before, I slept on the porch bench. My pack would show up from time to time, but they were convinced that the Cullens didn't plan on attacking me again, so they decided to wait in LaPush until I needed them again. The next day and night went the same way, and on the third day, I finally made some progress.

Edward came out and sat next to me, but stayed quiet for several long minutes. I wasn't sure if he was listening to my thoughts or if he was just trying to think of his own, but either way, at least he wasn't trying to kill me at the moment.

"I don't want to kill you Jacob, I never did." Edward spoke suddenly in response to my internal monologue.

"Never?" I asked in disbelief.

"No, not really. I mean don't get me wrong, I've hated you, but the truth is that I never really blamed you for loving Bella, you would be stupid not to, just like I don't blame you now for loving Renesmee. I know you couldn't help the way you feel, but you have to understand that I can't just sit by and let the relationship continue…"

"Edward, I can't live without her…"

"Do you know what your biggest negative personality trait is? You just don't listen. You are so wrapped up in your own personal issues, that you neglect to see the bigger picture. I was nowhere near finished telling you what I came out here to say, and you just jumped right in and answered what you _thought_ I was saying." Edward spoke calmly.

"You're right, I'm sorry. What were you saying?"

"I can't let the relationship continue the way it was going. Regardless of her maturity level, Bella and I decided that since most human girls stop growing around sixteen, that when she stopped growing last year, we would treat her as a sixteen year old; which would make her seventeen now. Now I don't know what father would be Ok with their seventeen year old daughter, dating a twenty four year old, but I'm not exactly one to talk about age differences, so I'm going to ignore your age and just focus on hers. Bella and I will continue to see her as a child, at least for the next year or so, and until then, there are going to be rules." Edward said, and then we both waited.

"Uhh, can I talk now?" I asked not wanting to throw him off his generous mood.

"Yeah, sorry."

"So you're actually going to let me see her?" I asked trying to clear everything up. My heart felt like it was starting to beat again from the hope that I was actually going to be allowed to be around her.

"Limitedly. I know she loves you, and this three day vigil of yours at least proves that you're dedicated." Edward said with a half smile. A half smile that was exactly like the one I memorized Nessie having; in fact, now that he's actually speaking to me calmly, I couldn't help but see just how much Ness actually looks like her father. It was just one more thing that I felt stupid not noticing before.

"Well, sometimes I think love can be blinding." Edward said quietly in response to my thoughts.

"You can say that again." I agreed. Edward stood up and walked into the house, but instead of shutting the door behind him like usual, he left it wide open. Was he actually inviting me in? I decided to take it that way, so I went in and figured that if I was wrong, the worst that would happen would be getting my ass kicked; it'd be worth it, even if I just caught the smallest glance Ness.

I looked around the large cream colored living room cautiously. It was exactly how I remembered it from the only other time I was inside, of course last time it was decorated with party decorations and strobe lights for Bella's grad party.

The concentrated vampire scent was strong, but after about a minute I was able to put it out of my mind and focus only on Nessie's beautiful aroma. I could tell she was upstairs, but I knew going up there after her, would be crossing the line that I was trying hard to stay behind. So I stood there for a minute, not quite sure what to do, when Edward came trotting down the stairs, with Nessie trailing behind him.

She looked at me briefly before turning back to her father.

"Ok, ground rules." Edward said. "Curfew at dark, no bedroom alone time, and for the next week, I want you two to only spend time together here, where you can be watched." Edward said the last part while glaring at me.

"Thanks daddy." Nessie said before reaching her arms around him and kissed him on the cheek. It was an odd thing to see, because in that moment he wasn't the vampire Edward Cullen that I always hated, he was just Nessie's dad, and I could see how deep their bond truly went.

"I'm leaving with your mom for a while, but Jasper is upstairs and Carlisle will be back any minute. They know the rules and will take proper actions if they're broken. We'll be back in a few hours." He said before kissing the top of her head and giving me a parting glare.

"I love you" She said after him.

"I love you too." And then I saw Bella come up to him from around the back of the house and they took off together.

Ness looked up at me and bit her bottom lip uncomfortably. "Small world, huh?" She said casually.

I laughed once and grabbed her in my arms, holding her close and said "You have no idea" I breathed in her scent like it was air, and I was suffocating without it. She leaned her head into my chest, and we just stayed in each other's arms for what seemed like an eternity but was over far too soon.

"Hey, hey, hey, that's way too close." Emmet came barreling into the room

"Uncle Met, my dad didn't say that hugging was outlawed." She said annoyed but smiled in spite of herself. I realized that I actually did hear her talking about her uncle Met in the past, I just never realized it was short for Emmet.

"Whatever, I'm in charge at the moment and I say _that's too close_." Emmet said to her, then whispered to me "I'm watching you pup, and if you're not careful, I'll neuter you in your sleep." Then he walked into the other room.

I looked over at Nessie who had an embarrassed expression on her face, so I told her. "Don't worry about it honey, that's not the first time he's razzed me. In fact, that's actually one of the milder encounters I've had with him."

"This is so weird. I can't believe you actually know my family. I'm so stupid, I mean I spent months freaking out and worrying what would happen if you ever came in contact with any of them, and now here you are standing in my family's house and my dad actually gave us permission to see each other."

"You, are not stupid and don't ever call yourself that again. You are the smartest most amazing person I have ever known. How could you have possibly known the truth, when you weren't even born yet when I knew them? I'm the one who should have figured this out, there were so many things that you said which should have clued me in on the truth, but I was just so closed minded. I even talked to your mom on the phone that one time, and I still had no clue."

"Well, you knew her as human right? She's changed since then. I saw her briefly before she was changed and she spoke to me, so I remember how different her voice was then." Nessie explained.

"I thought she was changed right after you were born?" I asked confused

"Yeah, well a few minutes after anyway. It was enough time for her to hold me and tell me I was beautiful. She was all sweaty and panting for air, but I didn't know the difference to understand that she was dying. I actually bit her, but that was the first and last time I ever bit a human and my dad scolded me for it." She said with a smile.

"Your dad scolded his minute old baby?"

"Well it's not like he was angry, he knew I could understand him so he was just trying to tell me that it wasn't Ok to bite."

"Gosh, I can't believe you actually remember all of that, it must have been terrifying." I said in awe.

"I was never scared until after, when my mom was so still and silent and my dad looked so sad and worried. He never left her side for the three days while she transformed, but my aunt Rose took me in to see him often. Remember when I told you that my favorite song was the one my dad wrote for me?" I nodded so she continued. "Well, that's when he wrote it, he would just hold me and hum the song that he made up on a whim, while we waited for my mom to wake up."

"You know, if I wasn't such a big moron, I probably would have met you a long time ago." I said quietly

"Well, to be honest, I'm glad you didn't. I think it would have been weird growing up knowing you; I mean, we probably would have just been friends. Do you think that our relationship would have turned romantic if you knew me as a baby?"

"I don't know, but I'm sure it would have been awkward at first if it did. I do know that I would have loved you no matter what though, because it's just not possible not to. But, then I see Quill with Claire and he gets to watch her grow up, so I guess that would have been cool too."

"Ok, come here" She said while reaching her hand up to my face. I stepped away from her quickly, because the last thing I wanted to do in that moment was to start kissing. I was just started getting used to the idea of her being a kid, and I really didn't need any of her overprotective vampire family members to walk in and see that.

"What?" She said confused as to why I would back away from her.

"Honey, we can't do that right now. I love you more than anything, but I really don't want to make your dad regret letting me see you. I can't handle being separated from you again, especially right now with the witches threatening you and everything; I have to be with you, as much as they will allow." I said in on the edge of panic.

"Uhh…wow; you really need to calm down. I wasn't going to try to make-out with you, do you think I'm nuts? My uncles are right upstairs and they have super hearing, remember? In fact, I can hear my uncle Met laughing hysterically at your reaction right now; he thinks you're scared to death of him." She said, and in fact I did hear Emmet too, but I was trying to ignore him.

"Well, I am afraid of him." I said honestly. I wasn't afraid of him physically of course, but I knew that if he gave a bad report about me to Edward, then he would forbid me to see her again. Besides, I think Emmet is the type of guy who is happiest when he thinks people are terrified of him, and he being in a good happy mood benefited me much more than arguing with him over who was stronger.

"Met is just a big teddy bear, he likes to talk a lot, but really he's just all fluff." Ness said.

"Hey, I heard that!" Emmet yelled from upstairs. Nessie just rolled her eyes.

"Ok, so what were you going to do before, when you looked like you wanted to touch me?" I asked

"Are you sure you want to know? My overzealous fingers might try to take advantage of you; you know how they like to trace your perfect abs." She teased, while moving her fingers around tauntingly.

"Come on, honey?" I said to her slightly frustrated, because she knew my weakness far too well and she never did fight fair.

"Alright, you're no fun. Come closer to me…" I hesitated and eyed her suspiciously. "Oh please, don't be ridiculous, get over here I'm not going to grope you." When I still didn't move she took the two steps to me, and reached up to my face.

The first thing I noticed was how soft and amazing her hand felt against my cheek, but that wasn't anything new, her skin always felt that way, but then I started seeing these strange pictures. They weren't blinding in any way, I could see right through them; they were more like memories, but they weren't mine. The first was of what looked like Bella, she was sweaty and panting, just how Nessie described her first memory of her mother. That's when I figured out what was happening, Nessie was putting her memories into my mind, it was absolutely amazing. I wasn't about to ask her how she was doing it, it was obvious that this was one of those extra vampire gifts like Edwards ability to read minds.

I got to see practically everything from the beginning of her extraordinary and rapid paced life, all the way to her asking her parents to go away to school. As much as I was trying to look at her like a child, it seemed like the more of her childhood memories that I saw, the more I knew that the person standing in front of me, was not a child. She lived so much in her short eight years, and she was more mature than anyone that I knew.

I didn't just see her memories of her family, I could feel what she was feeling, and it forced me to think of these vampires as actual people, loving, protective, supportive, closely bonded, people and I knew that I would never see them as enemies again. I thought back on the amount of times that I tried to break Edward and Bella up, that I tried convincing her that a life with vampires was not a life. I was positive that her choosing to be with Edward would end up taking her life away, but what it really did was give _me_ the life that I was always meant to find. I saw how happy Bella was in Nessie's memories, and how truly in love she and Edward were, and I had to thank god that Bella didn't listen to me back then. I just witnessed a lifetimes worth of memories, memories that would never have existed if I had gotten my way, and the most amazing person to ever walk this earth, would have never existed if Bella had listened to her stupid sixteen year old best friend.

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	19. Not Fighting Fair

**Changing Tides**

A/N_: If you've read any of my other stories, then you know how I love my Jake and Edward bonding moments, so here is this story's. I hope you like it and it's not too boring. The next couple of chapters are probably going to be mainly mush, fluff, and drama before we get back to the witches, but they definitely will be making a comeback._

Ch 19 – _Not Fighting Fair_

…..

It wasn't possible for me to love her anymore than I already did, but it seemed as if something was always missing. We started our relationship as technically _just friends_, we were both in denial then however, because there was a strong sexual tension between us that I know we both felt; we were just fighting it because we both had our own personal issues to deal with. Then we had that first amazing kiss, and I thought it was going to change everything, but the closer we became physically, the further she withdrew herself emotionally. I couldn't really blame her for it, I know now that it was because she was afraid of me finding out her truth, and that was a fear I forced her into due to my overreactions and closed mindedness. When I finally did learn what she was, things were strained to say the least. But now, it was almost like our relationship was heading backwards again, or maybe forwards, depending on how you looked at it; almost as if we started over from the very beginning.

Don't get me wrong, we're still close, but in a platonic-best friend sort of way. I didn't think much of it in that first week we spent with the Cullens, because we were constantly around her family but I did wonder how our relationship would be once we were able to have some time to ourselves. When Edward said curfew, he meant it. I was only allowed to be there during daylight hours, and he wanted me to go back to LaPush at night to sleep, he said me sleeping on the porch was upsetting Esme and Rose. Esme, because she hated the idea of me being so uncomfortable, and Rose, well because she's Rose and she's hates me. As overprotective as Edward was with Ness, Rose's was worse except she was callous about it.

"Oh Ness really, the smell will sink into your pores and you'll stink forever." Rose said with a tone meant to convey disgust as Ness and I were sitting together in the living room. I had my arm around her while she was leaning against me, but she automatically sat up when her aunt said that.

"Sweet heart, you know I love you and I just want what's best" -Rose said another day while Ness and I were sitting on the front porch. She sounded to be really concerned and had a caring tone to her voice,- "but you have to know that dating a dog isn't healthy, in fact you could get fleas…or worse, rabies. Have you had all your shots mutt?"

Whenever I wasn't in the same room as Nessie, Rose had her cornered and was trying to manipulate her into thinking I was all wrong for her. And on the rare occasion that I undesirably found myself alone with Rose for whatever reason, she was threatening me left and right. I could see the attraction between her and Emmet, they were both equally distasteful in their cold heartedness, although, Emmet seemed to be really warming up to me and I had to admit, he wasn't half bad.

"Hey pup? Alice said there will be a thunder storm on Monday, what do you say we have a battle of the beasts?" Emmet asked on the fifth day of Nessie's and my relationship-house arrest. Edward had said we needed to stay at the house for a week so we could be 'watched', so we were now on the home stretch.

"Uhh, what the hell does that mean?" I asked warily

"Oh come on, have you really been stuck in the pound too long? Vamps vs. wolves… baseball." Emmet said with a _duhh_ attitude. _How the hell was I supposed to know what he was talking about? _"I would say football, but I don't think us tackling each other would end well." Emmet added then waited for a response.

"Um, well, I guess, I have to ask the others to see if that's something they would want to do, but it sounds cool." I think I was actually taken aback by Emmet's offer more than anything, I thought he hated me as much as Blondie did.

"Met, you're such a dork." Ness teased with a smile after seeing how excited Emmet was about the possible upcoming monster match.

"Hey, games with all vamps are boring, this is going to be freaking awesome, epic even." Emmet said then ran off somewhere.

The rest of the week went pretty much the same, Ness and I would hang out, Rose would insult me, Edward would glare untrustingly, Esme was sweet and hospitable, and Bella completely ignored me. She and Ness would have full lengthy conversations in front of me, but Bella wouldn't even look my way, and I still wasn't ready to test her patience by initiating any communication between us.

Saturday rolled around, and it was our sixth day of being under the watchful eye of the Cullens. I really couldn't wait to be able to take Nessie back to LaPush for a few hours at least, I needed some time sans vampire; I think my nose was actually going numb to the smell, which kind of worried me a bit. (I wasn't counting Ness as a vamp because she didn't smell like them.)

"Hey, I'm going to go help Esme for a minute, she's making lunch." Ness said and kissed me on the cheek before disappearing in the house. We had spent the morning like every other morning that week, doing nothing but sitting outside and watching the clouds blow by, and occasionally making a snowman or having a snowball fight.

I got up to go follow her inside, because being in the kitchen while her and Esme cooked was better than being outside alone, when I almost ran into Bella as she was coming out.

"Sorry" I said quickly, she just glared at me, narrowed her eyes, then walked around me; at least she looked at me this time.

I felt horrible that she obviously hated me being with Nessie, but I wasn't about to leave because of it.

I started thinking back to the way Bella and I used to be, before I started throwing myself in her face all the time, back when we were just friends hanging in my garage as I worked on our bikes. Our relationship was easy back then, there were no vampires, no wolves, and no awkwardness because I hadn't completely screwed up both of our lives yet by trying to force myself between her and Edward.

"Well, how could you, I wasn't even there. I was the one who was the moron back then." Edward said in response to my thoughts. Damn, I didn't even know he was there, I knew my vamp detector was dulling because of my constant proximity to them.

"Well, I'm truly glad you came back." I told him honestly. In fact I wish he never left in the first place, maybe I never would have thought I stood a chance with Bella, and I wouldn't have even tried to break them up.

"Nah, you still would have tried, especially after you found out what I was. You had a crush on her since she first came to live with Charlie." He disagreed with my thought.

"Do you think she'll ever forgive me?" I asked him

"Who?" Edward asked. Uhh, was he serious?

"Rosalie, I really wish she didn't hate me so much." I said sarcastically. "Bella, of course. I thought you were a mind reader?"

"Oh, well, I wasn't paying attention, I was thinking about something else. Bella will forgive you, she just needs some extra time and she's just a little confused still." Edward said.

"Confused? About what?" I asked him.

"Jake, I really don't want you to take this the wrong way, but she didn't remember you too well at first. When someone is changed into a vampire, the human memories become fuzzy, and over time they fade and can be lost all together. My mother is my strongest memory from being a human, but it's because she was everything to me back then and I replayed those memories of her over and over again, until they were cemented in my vampire mind. My dad I remember a little, but we were never really close, and as far as anyone else in my life, those memories are completely gone, I could have been a weird loser with no friends for all I know."

"That wouldn't surprise me." Oh crap, did I just say that out loud? Oh well, he would have heard it even if I didn't.

Edward just smirked at me then continued; that was uncharacteristically friendly of him I was expecting a harsh comeback at least.

"When Bella changed, she held on to her memories of her dad the tightest, as well as of our wedding and the different important times we shared together while she was human. But her memories of me were easy to keep because we were still together, but her dad she had to work at. When it came to you, she didn't want to bring those memories with her into her new life as a vampire, not because she didn't care, it was because she cared too much. She loved you and thought it would be easier just to forget then to remember how much pain she caused you."

"So she doesn't remember me?" I said incredulously

"No, she remembers you now, it would have taken her a few more decades to forget completely, but those memories are hazy and she has to concentrate to remember them. When she found out about you and Ness, before you actually showed up here looking for her, she only remembered the last time she saw you at first, when you came to our wedding and it ended up turning into a mess."

"Oh, right, about that, I'm really sorry; I hope I didn't ruin the rest of the evening." I apologized feeling as though I owed him that for getting into a fight with him on his wedding day. I thought back to what the fight was about, and actually wanted to kick myself again. Bella let it slip that she planned on having a real honeymoon before she was changed, and I was convinced he would kill her in the process, little did I know that they would be conceiving my very reason for existing.

"I'm sure you would have done many things differently if you knew Renesmee was your future." Edward said quietly and I was actually shocked that he seemed to be accepting it.

"I love her more than anything Edward, and I swear this is nothing like what I felt for Bella. I was stupid back then, completely blind by my hate for you that I think it almost turned into more about saving her from you, then actually feeling like I belonged with her." I said coming to that realization at the same time that I was saying it.

"I know." Edward said quietly. I wasn't sure if he was referring to knowing that I love Nessie, or that my love for Bella was misplaced.

"Both actually. You know its funny; I spent many long nights back then considering the fact that you were a better choice for Bella then me. You were strong and could protect her from anything, supernatural or otherwise, but you were also warm, and…alive. She wouldn't have to give up her family for you and she could have a family of her own one day."

I started laughing, how freaking ironic; Edward thought about giving Bella up to me, because he didn't think he was capable of making her a mother, and now here I was dating their daughter…(stops laughing) ok maybe it wasn't ironic, maybe it was just sick. I sat there silently in my disturbing thought, and then Edward started laughing. I looked at him like he was crazy to be laughing at such a screwed up thought, especially from his perspective, but I couldn't help myself and I started laughing again.

"Ok, remember in that tent before the newborn fight." I said and Edward's laugh immediately cut off, ok so not such a good memory for him. "No, I mean the part where you said that if the situation was different, that you might actually like me? And I came back and said that I still wouldn't like you…well I was wrong, and I think you're actually a pretty cool guy."

"I was wrong then too." Edward said flatly while staring at me with an angry hard mask. I knew he was talking about what he said in the tent too, how he would actually like me if I wasn't after Bella. By telling me that he was wrong back then, Edward was basically saying that he still doesn't like me.

But then he started cracking up again, even louder than before. "You're mind is so funny to listen too, you are way too easy to fool." Edward continued to laugh.

"I'm glad I amuse you." I said coldly.

"Oh, come on, I'm just giving you a hard time." Edward said

"Yeah, well I'm having a hard enough time here without that thank you."

"I know you are, and that's why I'm busting you out early." I looked over at him quickly with wide eyes of disbelief and excitement. "Everything that I knew about you to be true before, all of those qualities that made you a better choice for Bella, still are what makes you who you are now. And those are the qualities that any dad would be lucky for their daughter to find in a…significant other. I trust you with her, and I'm actually really…happy that you make her so happy. I guess what I'm saying is, she could do worse." He said with a half grin.

Wow, Edward Cullen approves of me as his daughter's boyfriend? Is that a meteor coming our way, because I think the world is about to end.

"Sooo?" I asked trying to figure out what exactly he meant by 'busting out early'.

"So, you're free; well she's free I mean. She can leave, and you can hang out…" _He gulped_ "alone". He had to force out the 'alone' part, it was obvious he was having a hard time with it.

"Can I take her to LaPush?" I said quickly trying to hold back my excitement.

He smiled "Actually, I'd prefer that you did. With those witches still pissed at us, I'd rather her be where I know people can protect her."

"So LaPush with my pack or here with you guys?" I said trying to clear up his wishes.

"I could be wrong, but I think that's fair. But I still would like her home by dark, unless you have previously set plans like going to dinner or a movie or something."

"You got it Eddie." I said while absent mindedly patting his shoulder, then letting it come to a rest there. He looked at my hand on him then glared at me "Ok, maybe not" I said quietly to myself and removed my hand. "Too much, too soon?" I asked him cautiously, he continued to glare so I got up and backed away "Okay" I said with my hands up apologetically worried he was going to take everything back.

"God, Black; you are too easy." Edward said finally and started laughing again.

"No I'm not; you just have an unfair advantage with the whole mind reading thing." No wonder Nessie doesn't fight fair, she learned it from her dad.

Edward chuckled again then went back in the house.

Nessie came skipping out bringing the smell of fried chicken with her. "It's ready." She said with a smile. We both went in the kitchen and it looked like a freaking KFC, there had to be at least a hundred pieces of chicken sitting on the table. Esme looked at me and must have been able to read my expression.

"Well, I heard that Edward was releasing you, so I thought that it would be nice to bring lunch back to LaPush to share with your pack." Esme said sweetly. It didn't matter how rude my pack was to her, she just didn't seem to stop caring.

Ness and Esme put the Chicken into a bag, and when they were finished, Ness kissed her cheek then grabbed my arm to pull me towards the door. "Uhh, thanks Esme, that very…" I was going to say _generous of you_, but Nessie already had me out the door and down the driveway, though I probably should have said it anyway, I'm sure she could have heard me.

"Slow down where's the fire?" I said trying to fight back my chuckles at her eagerness to leave the house.

"I just have been going stir crazy here, and I don't want to waste another minute of our allotted daylight time away."

"RENESMEE!" Edward called after us. Damn, I knew this was too good to be true.

We turned slowly.

Edward threw something at her and she caught it easily.

"Thanks dad" She said back to him. She didn't bother yelling even though he was pretty far away; she knew he could hear her.

"What's that?" I asked curiously

She smiled excitedly and held up a key dangling from a chain. I understood immediately.

"Ok, first one to the garage, get's to drive." I said readily

"No way, I have the keys, what makes you think I'm going to hand them over?" She said stubbornly with a smile.

"Because you're too young to drive." I said and she rolled her eyes at me.

"Ehh, try again." She said.

"Ok, because you are extremely competitive and can't turn down a bet." I tried.

She bit her bottom lip and thought for a second before holding out her hand. "You win, you drive, I win and I'll drive. But no cheating, no letting me win either, but most importantly, no phasing, we're doing this humanly."

"Hey, you're not going to run at human speed." I said realizing that her rules gave her the advantage.

"Oh, please, you don't run at human speed either, no matter the form you're in." She said annoyed, but kept her tone light.

"Alright" I took her hand and shook it. "Deal" I crouched down getting ready for the race when she just took off running.

"That's not fair, you didn't say go. CHEATER!" I yelled at her as I struggled to catch up. In wolf form, I was definitely faster than her, and she was right, I was faster than humans while in my human form, but not faster than her.

Nessie beat me to the garage of course, so she got the privilege of climbing into the driver's seat of the Aston Martin Vanquish. It was a 2001 model but was completely breathtaking. If I had known this was out here all along, I probably would have come and hotwired it or something. I was really upset, so I wouldn't put steeling their car past me.

I didn't complain too much as I climbed in the passenger seat, just being inside the thing was amazing.

"Don't be too upset, I'll let you drive home." She said with a smile.

"Promise?" I asked.

"If you behave until then." She said then started the engine.

"I really don't think it's very responsible of your parents to let their eight year old drive." I teased

She shook her head "That's not behaving" she scolded me.

I laughed and she smiled.

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	20. Breaking the Law

**Changing Tides**

Ch 20 – _Breaking the Law_

…..

We got to LaPush in record time; damn she drove like a speed demon.

"Honey, you really should take it easy, these roads are icy in the winter." I warned her.

"Uhh, I may only be half vampire, but I have wonderful reflexes." She said arrogantly, I just shook my head at her.

We drove over to pick up Embry, I knew he would go nuts for this car; and he did.

"Holy crap! Damn Jake, how did you get lucky enough to imprint on a Cullen?" I just stared at Embry for a moment before smacking him on the side of the head. "Ouch, jerk…Do I smell Chicken?"

"Moron" I said as Embry's one track mind zeroed in on Esme's chicken. "Leave some for the others" I ordered him as he started devouring a leg.

We drove to the hotel room that I had been staying in, and called the rest of my pack to come hang out. It only took about five minutes before Quill showed up and three minutes after that, Seth and Leah came.

"Hey, how did you guys bust out of the Cullen prison?" Leah asked.

"We were paroled early for good behavior." Nessie smiled.

"So, anything new on the witch front?" Quill asked. He never got a chance to see the witches first hand, but when he joined our pack, he was automatically linked mentally and was able to see them through our connected minds.

"Nah, I think they are too afraid to mess with us after Nessie kicked Greg's ass." I said while winking at Ness.

"So, if your name is really Renesmee, then why are we all still calling you Nessie?" Seth asked out of the blue.

Ness shrugged but Leah butted in. "Nessie works for Renesmee just the same, it was actually cool that Jake made it up, now we don't have to change what we call her." Leah always seemed to butt in when it came to Nessie, but Ness didn't ever mind, in fact, the two were as close as ever.

We killed off the chicken quickly and then we all went down to the beach for a few hours. We played beach volley ball, and a few passer-byers looked at us like we were nuts because of the cold weather and we were all barefoot.

It felt really nice just relaxing for the afternoon with my girl and my closest friends. We just spent a few hours playing and fooling around forgetting our problems for a while, when the sun started getting lower in the sky.

"Well little vamp, sun is setting and it's time to go back to your coffin for the night." I teased her.

"Oh really? Well that little remark lost you the keys; in fact, you can just stay here while I drive home myself." She said coldly, but I knew her well enough to know that she was kidding; and there was no way I was going to let her drive home alone.

"Why don't you just turn into a bat and fly home?" Seth said with a smile. I glared at him angrily, no one talked to My Nessie like that….except me.

"I don't know Seth, I may need to drain you first; it takes a lot of human blood to make me strong enough to turn into a bat. Shape shifting is much harder for me than it is you." Nessie joked back to him.

"Come on honey, let's go." I said before giving Seth a warning look. "See you guys tomorrow." I said to them and Ness said bye as well before we climbed into the car.

The engine purred to life as Nessie put the car into gear and revved it.

"Babe, you have to slow it down, your dad would kill me if we spun out." I warned her.

"Oh don't pout because I didn't let you drive." She mocked

"I'm not pouting." _I pouted_ "I just don't want to get this car wrapped around a tree that's all."

And then, as if on cue, red and blue lights flashed behind us. CRAP.

"Jake, what do I do?" She asked in a panic.

"Do you have your license on you?" I asked her

"Yeah"

"Ok, pull over; the worse that will happen is that you'll get a speeding ticket." I assured her so she pulled the car over and we waited.

"License and registration?" A familiar voice said from outside the car. Well, at least I should be able to talk us out of this one.

"Hey Charlie, what's up?" I said and Ness shot me a panicked glance; this was the first time she saw Charlie since she found out that he was her grandfather.

"Oh, hey there Jake…and um...I'm sorry sweet heart I don't remember your name." Charlie said to Ness.

"Uhh, Nessie" She told him with a nervous smile.

"Well Nessie, you sure were driving fast, is there some kind of emergency?" Charlie asked. I looked up to the sky and saw that it was turning colors, wonderful. My first day of limited freedom with Nessie and I was going to bring her home late. Hello house arrest again.

"No; no emergency. I'm sorry, I just didn't realize how fast I was going." Nessie worked her flawless charm.

"This is a pretty car, did you rent it? I would have run the plates before I first pulled you over, but my computer seems to be down, so I called it in to the station. I'm really sorry you two, if I had known it was you I might have let you go with a warning, but since it's already been called in, I'm going to need to still see that license." Charlie said apologetically as the sky started to turn purple.

"Yeah sure." Nessie said then handed him her license.

Charlie looked at it a minute then looked up at us. His eyes flickered between the two of us before sighing and shaking his head. I knew Charlie had been the chief for a long time, but I didn't think he would have been able to decipher Nessie's flawless fake ID so easily.

"Vanessa Mason?" He asked in an unrecognizable tone.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, my friends all call me Nessie. I didn't mean to confuse you by that." Nessie said quickly; damn she was a good liar.

"What's wrong Charlie?" I asked concerned.

"Well" He huffed. "Jake, I don't really know what's going on here, but you did say she was your girlfriend right?" Charlie asked.

I thought through the conversation we had back when we first got into town when we were at his and Sue's house. I wanted to make sure I kept to the same story, so I said "Yeah, what's going on?"

"Vanessa, it says here that you're seventeen and your home address is New York. Jake is twenty four so I hate to have to ask this, but did your parents give you permission to come across the country?" Charlie asked unexpectedly. Uh Oh.

"Of course Mr. Swan, my mom's a lawyer so she knows the law. She gave me a written permission statement with her signature giving her permission." Nessie didn't miss a beat.

"Ok, I'm going to need to see it." Charlie called her bluff.

"I don't have it on me; I left it back at the hotel." She said with a smile that could light up the world. Charlie lost his concentration for a moment as he took in Nessie's dazzling beauty; she was completely hypnotizing even in a platonic way.

"The hotel that you two are sharing?" He asked finally. Crap, Crap, Crap. I always gave Seth a hard time saying he was going to end up and jail for dating young girls, and here I was the one about to be arrested, by Charlie Swan none the less.

"Charlie, it's not what it looks like." I said, even though it was actually far worse than what it looked like.

"Well I hope not Jake, because what it looks like is a runaway teen with a very adult boyfriend." Charlie accused. But he of course was wrong, Ness wasn't even a teen yet, god I'm sick.

"I didn't run away, my parents know where I am." That was the first honest thing she's said to him, besides her mom being a lawyer.

"Great, well we're going to need to call them."

"Uh, that's not such a good idea Charlie." I said quickly

"Damn it Jake, what the hell are you doing?" _God only knows_ "Taking a minor over state lines without parent permission is a federal offense, it's kidnapping and you could spend some serious time in jail for this." _Don't I know it. _"Jake, I need you to be straight with me, there's only so much I can help you with." Charlie asked in a caring, frustrated manner.

"I don't really know what to say Charlie." I said pathetically

Charlie shook his head disappointedly. "I'm sorry kid, but I'm going to have to take you into the station so we can get a hold of her parents."

Damn it. Now I'm going to have to figure out a way to get myself out of jail, so I can defend Nessie from the witches, and myself from an angry mind reading vampire.

We climbed into the back seat of Charlie's cruiser and he was impounding the Vanquish. I held Nessie's hand and whispered her words of reassurance, but she was way calmer than I was.

"Jake, calm down, I just need to figure out a way to contact my parents, so they can find someone to pose as my parents." Ness whispered.

"They are going to want proof, like birth certificates, and that could take days for them to have faked." I whispered back.

She shrugged "Oh well, I guess they'll just have to knock the wall out and we can escape that way." She said unconcerned.

The sky was almost fully dark and I knew the Cullens were probably starting to get upset with me now. I just hoped they didn't act hastily and crossed into LaPush looking for her; Sam would really get pissed at that.

We arrived at the station and we were immediately separated and fingerprinted. Neither of us were taken out of the main room, apparently I wasn't going to be actually locked up until they ran my prints. I had a clear view of Nessie on the other side of the crowded room, she was sitting on a bench while a female cop that I didn't know, kept questioning her. I was so focused on her, that I didn't notice when Charlie came and sat down beside me.

"Jake, I ran the plates and the car was registered to Carlisle Cullen. Now I know you have had issues with the Cullens since you were a teen, but I never would have thought that you would have stolen his car. I don't get it Jake? Was the car just sitting at their old place so you thought to let your underage girlfriend take a joyride? And what's up with you dating such a young girl anyway? I know that it's been rough for you, with first Bella's passing and then your dad, but I can't make this right for you. I just hope that this doesn't ruin your life permanently."

I was silent because I had no idea what to say, so Charlie added "Jake, I get it, I do. I hated the Cullens for a long time too. I blamed them for Bella being gone, like they somehow knew what was going to happen and they didn't stop it. But Jake, what happened was no one's fault. Accidents happen, and there is nothing we can do to make them right." I could see how hard it was for Charlie to have to arrest me, but his morals wouldn't let him overlook the fact that I had broken a few different laws.

Let's see, stolen car, check. Kidnapping, check. Statutory rape, double check. I wonder how many years that will put me behind bars for. Damn Cullens, I always knew they were going to get me into trouble. _I didn't really mean that, Nessie was worth all of it._

Charlie hesitantly left for a while, and they took Nessie out of the room too, and that's when I started panicking. What if by chance the witches decided to attack tonight, how would I protect her while I was locked up?

"Excuse me?" I said to anyone who would listen. "Excuse me, sir? Miss?" No one was paying attention to me; so I got desperate. I stood up and yelled "CHARLIE!" I didn't see him anywhere, but at least it got people's attention.

Charlie sauntered back over to me from an opposite room, with an annoyed scolding expression on his face.

"Son, you are already in a heap of trouble, you may want to mind your manners in here. Now, what was so important that couldn't wait?"

"I need to make a phone call." I told him sternly. " Is there like bail or something I can post that will get me out of here?" I asked, but Charlie was looking over my shoulder with a shocked expression on his face. I turned around and saw who he was gawking at; _here we go_.

"Charlie, how are you my friend?" Carlisle said fondly with a smile.

"I thought you and your family were on the other side of the world right now?" Charlie said to him.

"Well, we were, but we just came into town briefly to check on the belongings that we still had at our old home. I just got a phone call from your deputy and there seems to be a misunderstanding." Carlisle said pleasantly.

"Oh, heard about the car have you?" Charlie asked and looked over his shoulder back at me regretfully.

"Yes, and I just wanted to clear up that I did, in fact, give permission for Jacob to barrow the car." Carlisle said with a wink at me.

Charlie turned to me, and had a strange confused look on his face.

"Since when is one of the Quileute boys friends with a Cullen? I thought they all hated you guys for some god knows reason." Charlie said.

"No, actually, Jacob is a close friend of my family and he has been giving us some assistance lately." Carlisle said. Man I can't believe this is actually happening, at least car theft will be taken off my record.

Charlie didn't look like he believed Carlisle's story, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. If Carlisle wasn't going to press charges, then I couldn't be punished for it.

"Well thanks for stopping by and clearing that up for us, Rhonda over there can help you get your car back." Charlie said.

"Oh, actually, I'm here to pick up my niece as well." Carlisle said unexpectedly.

"Niece?" Charlie questioned

"Yes, Vanessa Mason. She caught a ride out here from Jacob to visit me while I'm in town. She's my brother's daughter, she has been out here for almost a week and a half."

"Jake said she was his girlfriend?"

"Well, I don't know about that, but they have been spending much time together since she's been here."

Charlie scratched his head trying to believe what Carlisle was telling him, but the pieces didn't all fit and Charlie was not a stupid man. "I'm still going to need to see some kind of proof and talk to her parents."

"Of course, I can call them for you if you'd like?" Carlisle offered.

"Just give me the number, and I'll call them."

"Definitely, here you go." Carlisle pulled out a piece of paper with a number on it and Charlie started dialing.

Charlie talked to whoever he called for a few minutes, then hung up. He still seemed like he wasn't convinced, but again, there wasn't anything he could do about it. Nessie came skipping out from the room they had her in, and grabbed Carlisle's hand while planting a kiss on his cheek. Charlie eyed them suspiciously then walked over to me, and shot me an untrusting glare.

"I don't believe any of this, but I also don't know why Carlisle would lie either. So you are free to go, but you better straighten out your act Jake, you might not get so lucky next time. And most importantly, you need to watch yourself with that girl, she is far too young for you to be messing around with." Charlie said with authority. _Oh if he only knew the truth._

Nessie looked back at Charlie one last time before Carlisle led us out, and I could see the longing in her eyes; she wanted so badly to know him and to give his daughter back to him, but just didn't know how.

"Ugh, I feel so bad for him" Nessie said as she climbed into the back seat of Carlisle's Mercedes. "It sucks that he thinks mom is dead."

"Carlisle, what about the Vanquish?" I asked him warily.

"We'll come back for it tomorrow, Bella is pretty upset and I think it would be best to just get Renesmee home for now." Carlisle said.

"Right. Should I just go back to LaPush?" I asked unsure.

"No, I think Edward wants to talk to you, hop in." Carlisle said, so I sat in the passenger seat then we headed towards their house.

"How did you find out what happened?" I asked confused.

"Renesmee called Edward, and so we figured that since both Edward and Bella are supposed to be dead, and couldn't possibly have a seventeen year old daughter anyway, we thought up the story I told Charlie." Carlisle explained.

"How pissed are they?" I asked quietly

Carlisle smirked. "I'll leave that between you and them."

"Grandpa, isn't there any way that we can tell Charlie the truth?" Ness asked from behind us.

"I wish there was sweetheart, I know your mother would love to see him." Carlisle answered.

We rode the rest of the way in silence. I thought about the possible outcomes of meeting with Edward and Bella and my palms grew sweaty from my nerves. One, they could just kill me right away. Two, house arrest indefinitely; but the most likely and worst scenario, would be them forbidding me to see Ness at all. I'd rather they just kill me.

We pulled up to the driveway and the sweat started beading on my temple, it was middle of winter for crying out loud and I was still sweating. I did take half a moment to wonder why I was more nervous now than I had been when I came to confess my undying love for her to her father. But then I realized it was because I didn't really have any hope then, but now Edward had actually given me his trust and I screwed it up. I can't believe I got Ness hauled into the police station, some protector I am.

Edward appeared in the house front doorway and waited for us to come up to him. Ness casually strolled up to him and kissed him on the cheek, then went around him into the house. Her casually demeanor didn't really surprise me, I knew she already talked to him on the phone, and it became perfectly obvious over the past week, just how much she had her whole family wrapped around her little finger.

Carlisle followed Ness past Edward into the house, but I just stood there outside while he glared at me.

"I'm sorry…again." I said sheepishly.

Edward cracked a half smile. "If you can't even protect her from her human grandfather, how the hell are you going to protect her from anything supernatural?"

"I don't think any of this is funny." I said annoyed at his light attitude. I had to admit, this easy going new Edward was starting to get on my nerves. I hated what happened tonight and though I'm grateful that none of my fears were realized, I now understood what a screw up I truly was. I needed Edward to be angry with me, I needed to beg him to let me be in Nessie's life again, to fight for her, because I was really feeling pretty worthless at the moment.

"Oh, give yourself a break." Edward said. "Nessie is a very strong minded girl."

"Nessie?" I asked surprised that he used my nick name for her.

"Crap, I did it again didn't I? I called her that earlier too, and Bella nearly had my head for it. It's your fault though"

"Naturally, what isn't these days?"

"I've been listening to your mind the most intently for the past week and now I've accidentally adopted your ridiculous nick name." Edward said jokingly annoyed. "Anyway, just remember that she is her mother's daughter and stubborn as all hell." He added.

"Why are you not pissed at me?" I asked still confused.

"Oh come on Jake, what did you do wrong anyway? You would have had her home by dark like I asked; it was just being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"And let me guess, you don't even care about Ness speeding?"

"Why would I care about that? She has excellent reflexes, and she wouldn't get hurt even if she did manage to get into an accident somehow." Edward said. Typical, I should have expected that answer.

"What about Bella?"

"I think Bella is more upset that Nessie was with her dad, and he'll never know who she is to him." Edward explained.

"Ok, well…" I really didn't know what else to say. I was preparing for some big fiasco and now none of it seemed like a big deal. The sudden switch in emotional climates gave me a head ache.

"Go home for the night Jake, we'll see you tomorrow. Nessie come say good night." Edward said then he went back in the house before I heard him say "Damn it". I laughed knowing he was upset that he used my nick name for her again.

Nessie came out and wrapped her arms around my torso and gave me a friendly kiss on my cheek. "Goodnight Jake. See ya in the morning."

I really hoped tomorrow went better than today, but with my luck, I doubt it.

*******Please Review*******


	21. The Undead

**Changing Tides**

A/N**:**_Ok so this one is a little longer than normal, I didn't mean for it to be so long, but it sort of got away from me and I didn't want to cut anything out. Please Review at the end of the chapter, thanks._

Ch 21- _Undead_

….

I woke up as soon as the sun did, and I ran over to the Cullens right away. I knew there was a good chance that Nessie was still sleeping, but I figured I could hang with Edward for a while or discuss the upcoming monster baseball game with Emmet until she woke up. I was always eager to see Ness every morning, but perhaps our run in with the police yesterday made me even more anxious than normal and I couldn't seem to shake the uneasy feeling I had like something was going to happen again today, something worse than just being arrested.

Edward came to the door before I even got to the steps. "Wow, I really missed you sunshine." Edward teased.

"Yeah I bet you did, it's my wonderful aroma that you just can't seem to resist, just admit it." I joked back.

"Of course I admit it; your pheromones drive me wild."

"Ok, too far." I laughed. "Is Nessie still asleep?" I asked finally.

"I heard her stirring about a half of an hour ago, so she should be down soon. Esme is making breakfast." He said so I followed him in the house.

"So Esme, how did you become such a good cook?" I asked her while she flipped an omelet.

"Are you kidding? I love to cook. I came from a big family who loved to eat and I couldn't be more thrilled then to have people around who can actually appreciate it. Plus, the food network these days is amazingly informative." Esme said enthusiastically.

"I'm really sorry about the way my pack treated you. You are way too kind to be treated like that by anyone; I'll make sure it doesn't happen again." I promised her

"You are so sweet Jake, but don't worry about it. I know it's going against their nature to be around us; you too in fact, I'm sure this must be hard for you." Esme said caringly.

"Nah, I mean I guess at first, but you are all cool and what's important to Ness, is important to me." I told her.

"She's very lucky to have you." She told me with a warm smile.

"No, I'm the lucky one." That was the first time that I ever really thought of myself as lucky. I always had the worst luck ever since my mom died when I was little. It was always just one bad thing after another but now, even with her age and opposing species, having Ness in my life makes me the luckiest guy in the world.

Nessie danced into the room, looking as beautiful as ever.

"Hey Jakey." She kissed me quickly before kissing Esme and then Edward.

Edward huffed "Since when am I last?" He complained

"Sorry Daddy, but grandma cooked." She said sweetly

"But why did I get greeted behind Wolf over there?" He said playfully offended.

"He's cuter." She said and stuck her tongue out at him.

Bella came into the room quietly and wrapped her arms around Edward's torso from behind, and kissed him on the neck.

"Renesmee, no one is cuter then your father." Bella said then kissed him again.

"Eww. To each their own." Nessie said while she shrugged, then walked back over to me and sat on my lap.

"Bella? I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about what happened last night." I said cautiously to her.

"Oh right." Nessie interrupted. "My dad said that I need to apologize to you too." Ness said.

"Why?" I asked confused.

"Renesmee, you're not supposed to tell him that I asked you to apologize." Edward said with a grin.

"Oh. Right." She was quiet for a few seconds. "Well, I still am sorry. I should have listened to you when you asked me to slow down."

"Don't worry about it sweet heart." I assured her and kissed the top of her head.

"No, really Jake. That was irresponsible of me and I could have gotten you into a lot of trouble, I'm really and truly sorry." She said while looking deep into my eyes. God I wanted to kiss her.

Edward cleared his throat while looking at me, and then he turned his attention back to Ness. "And?" He prompted her. Nessie shook her head at him, but Edward nodded sternly, so she sighed.

"And, you can drive when we go places for a while." She said sadly.

"Renesmee, you should just be glad that we didn't take your license away all together." Bella added.

"I know, Ok." Ness said while looking away from them like a sullen teenager. "Ready to go?" She asked me.

"Uhh, are we allowed to leave?" I asked surprised. I actually thought they would want her to hang around the house again after what happened.

"Yeah, like my dad could really punish me for driving fast anyway, you should see the way he drives." She said while smirking at Edward.

Carlisle came into the house from the front, and held his hand out to me. "Here you go."

I looked down at his hand which he was holding in a fist, and reflexively reached up for whatever he was giving me. He dropped a key in my hand that I recognized as being the Vanquish key.

"Enjoy it." Carlisle said.

"Oh that's cool, you already picked it up from the impound?" I asked

"That's where I just came from, and I stopped by the DMV to put it in your name so this little mess won't happen again." Carlisle informed me.

"In my name?" I asked confused

"I's all yours, have fun with it, the title is in the glove department." Carlisle explained.

"Not that I'm not appreciate or anything, but why would you give me your car?" I asked stunned

"Actually, it was Edward's before he died, but since he's gone now, I got ownership but I think he would have wanted you to have it." Carlisle said

"I'm standing right here." Edward said annoyed at Carlisle.

"Are you sure about this Edward?" I asked him.

"Well since it's a classic now, I thought you would be the best person to keep the old junker running. I was planning on getting rid of it anyway." Edward joked.

"Thanks man, that's awesome." I was never one for hand outs, but I sure as hell wasn't going to pass on a Vanquish; when was I ever going to get another chance to own something like that?

"Come on Jake, let's go." Nessie said grabbing my arm.

I felt kind of bad being given something that awesome, then just taking off so quickly but what Nessie wants, Nessie gets, so we left.

I sat behind the wheel of my new car and turned it on. It was like this car was made for me and it quickly became my second most favorite thing in the world. I had the hardest time restraining myself from letting it go and seeing how fast it really was, but there was no way I was going to speed in this thing with Ness sitting next to me after what happened to us.

"Where too my lady?" I asked Ness as we crossed into LaPush.

"Let's go see Leah and Seth." She said

"Ok, I'll give them a call."

"No, let's go to their house" Nessie suggested

"Well that's not a good idea. Charlie lives there and I doubt he'd appreciate us showing up right now."

"Oh please?" She begged giving me her puppy eyes. "I really want to see Sue again, besides Charlie is probably at work."

I sighed, and against my better judgment, I agreed "Swan-Clearwater house, here we come." I said lacking enthusiasm.

We pulled into the driveway and Seth automatically came out to greet us. "Hey there felon and jailbait." Seth teased, but I had it coming so I didn't threaten him for it. "Charlie told us what happened last night, damn are you lucky."

"Yeah well Carlisle and Edward really came through for us." I agreed with him.

"I'm surprised Edward let you guys hang out today." Seth said.

"Not only did he let us leave the house, but he also gave Jake the Vanquish." Nessie gloated

"What?" Seth yelled in excited disbelief. "You got taken in to jail, and they reward you with a freaking amazing badass car?"

"Isn't my dad the best?' Nessie said smugly

"Hell yeah, but then again I always thought so." Seth said while looking at me suggestively. "Do you think he'll give me a car too?" Seth asked Nessie.

"Maybe, do you want me to ask him?" Ness said.

"Yes" Seth said at the same time as I said "No"

"Seth, I didn't ask him for this car, and he was planning to get rid of it anyway, besides you won't be driving his daughter anywhere." I said annoyed by Seth.

"Well, maybe Carlisle will want to get rid of his Mercedes, that's an older car now too." Seth hoped.

"Don't hold your breath." I said to him.

"Hey Jake, I was wondering if I was going to get to see you again." Sue said as she came out from the house. "Hey Nessie, how are you sweet heart?"

"Hi Sue." She said with a huge grin.

"Uhh, maybe we should take off?" Seth said so I turned around to see Charlie's cruiser pulling up to the driveway. I knew this was going to happen.

"Hi Charlie" Nessie said jovially. Apparently Nessie knew this was going to happen too, in fact it's obvious that she was hoping for it. She is really going to get me killed.

Charlie huffed uneasily and shook his head as he took us in.

"Hi Nessie." He said with a half hearted smile. "Jake" He greeted me coldly; oh this is going to be wonderful.

"How was work?" Nessie asked him casually. What the hell was she thinking of?

"Are you guys hungry?" Sue asked us quickly trying to break the tension.

I was about to say _no_ because Esme had just made us breakfast, but Nessie jumped in and said "Sure, thanks Sue." I saw Charlie pinch the bridge of his nose as a frustrated response to us staying for a visit.

Nessie was much more at ease this time being here than she was the last time. She was much more talkative and seemed to be comfortable around Sue and Charlie.

"So kids, what are your plans today?" Sue asked us.

"They aren't kids Sue, except for Nessie of course." Charlie said harshly.

"Hey, is that a picture of you daughter Charlie?" Nessie asked while ignoring his previous comment. She got up to the mantle and picked up the small picture of Bella as a child; I wondered how she missed it last time, maybe she just wasn't paying attention then.

"Yes, that's my daughter Bella." Charlie said before quickly going and taking the picture from her, and replacing it on the mantel where it was.

"She was beautiful, how old was she there?" Nessie asked

"Eleven." Charlie said shortly

"Do you have any more recent pictures of her?" Nessie asked. God, why the hell was she pushing this?

"No"

"Sure we do, I'll go get them." Sue said and shot Charlie a meaningful glance.

She came back with a photo album, and sat next to Nessie on the couch so they could look through it together.

"Ahh, she is so pretty." Nessie cooed. I could tell how much she was loving seeing her mom at such a young age and completely human. The Cullens didn't have any pictures of Bella as a human except for their wedding picture. At the end of the album, there was an 8x10 of Bella and Edward from prom; it was the only picture there was of Edward in the album.

Nessie didn't speak as she stared at the picture of her parents, but we all noticed the tear that streamed down her cheek as she gazed at it. "Charlie?" She said hesitantly. Oh no.

"We better be going." I cut her off.

"Nessie, are you Ok?" Charlie asked concerned.

"Yeah, she's fine." I answered for her quickly before she had a chance to tell him what I now realized that she came here to say.

"I didn't ask you Jacob." Charlie said angrily.

"She's not dead." Nessie said suddenly. Crap.

"What?" Sue and Charlie said at the same time.

"Bella, she's not dead and they shouldn't have told you that." Nessie told him then glanced sideways at me quickly before turning back to them.

Charlie's face ranged in emotions from shock and confusion, to anger.

"Why would you say something like that?" Sue asked insulted while Charlie was speechless. I wasn't sure before if Seth or Leah told their mom about Bella being Nessie's mom, but I did know that she was well aware that Bells was actually a vampire, so her reaction was just for show.

"I just don't think it's fair for him to grieve her when she's currently living a few miles away with the rest of the Cullens."

"Ok, I've heard enough, what kind of sick game are you playing?" Charlie asked with hurt in his eyes. "My daughter died eight years ago, and this is cruel, especially coming from you Jake." Wow, once again, this was turned onto me.

"Charlie calm down…" I said to him

"Don't you dare tell me to calm down!" He was yelling now. All the years I've known him, I've never heard him yell. "I don't know what the Hell you are doing here, but you need to leave now."

"Charlie please…"

"Get out of my house, NOW!"

I stood up and grabbed Nessie's hand and was about to go for the door, when Leah came running in.

"Vamps, like four of them." She said sounding out of breath.

"Where?" I asked quickly

"Right Out Side!" She yelled

"What the hell?" I didn't even ask Leah if they were Cullens, because I knew she would have told me that right away, and they knew better than to come here. I looked to Nessie to see if she had any clue as to what was going on, but she looked just as confused as I did.

We ran outside quickly, and I could hear Sue trying to convince Charlie to stay there, but he sounded as if he was following, but I couldn't focus on that in the moment.

Four vampires stood there lounging against the trees that surrounded the yard, but the big question is, why. My past two weeks with the Cullens has taught me to talk first, before attacking, so I cautiously walked closer to them. I glanced one more time at Ness to see if she knew these vamps, and she just shook her head no but either way, this wasn't a coincidence that they showed up here and now.

"Why are you here?" I asked them forcefully

"What, can't a group friends just walk the forest for no reason at all?" One of the vamps asked with a smirk.

"Drop the bull, what the hell do you want?" I demanded.

"We ran into some old buddies of yours, a definitely bewitching group of young men, who spoke of a bunch of wolf people that they thought we would be interested in brawling with." The vamp said.

"Why would Greg let vamps live, little alone tell them to come fight us? Besides, Greg didn't know where we were from." Seth said quietly to just me and Leah but of course the vamps heard him.

"Locating spell, obviously." A vamp answered Seth. "Let's just say that we met the witches during a vulnerable moment on their part, and they struck us a deal. They could tell that we were looking for some worthy opponents to spar with, to better our little gang here obviously, so they told us about you boys…and the female of course.

"Dude I'm seriously going to kill those witches." Leah said quietly.

"Focus on the fight ahead of us Lee." Seth told her.

We were outnumbered four to three, and there wasn't time to call Embry and Quill, so my first thought was to get the humans away so I wouldn't be distracted during the fight worrying about them. "Ness, take Sue and Charlie back inside." I instructed her.

"Now, why are you going to send them away, I could really use a victory snack after we finish you three off." The first vamp said, which left me seeing red.

"What the hell is going on here?" Charlie said while walking forward like he was going to get between us.

"Charlie, you need to stay back." Nessie grabbed his hand and pulled him back towards the house. I could see Charlie try to break free from her grasp, but Nessie was stronger than him and he noticed.

The vamps used my distraction to their advantage, and they attacked. I phased first and crashed into them before Leah and Seth joined in the fight. I couldn't tell Charlie's reaction and I couldn't focus on it either. These four vamps were tough, and as the alpha, I took on two of them while Leah and Seth each fought one. I killed the first with a swift bit to the neck causing his head to roll away from his body, but we were having a harder time with the others.

I was extremely focused on the fight at hand, because these three vamps had to be some of the toughest we've been up against, when a muffled scream cased me to turn away. A fifth vamp snuck up and had Nessie in a chock hold covering her mouth as he was struggling to drag her off somewhere. Charlie pulled it out his gun and had it pointed at the vamp, yelling for him to release Ness but the vamp just laughed at him. My heart leaped into my throat as I saw that disgusting leech with his arms around my Nessie.

_Crap. We got this Jake, go get her_ – Seth thought and Leah agreed.

As much as I hated leaving them out numbered again, it was impossible for me to stay and help them when Nessie was in that kind of danger, so I ran over to them. I leaped in Nessie's direction, when I was caught in mid air from behind as the vamp I had been fighting grabbed my back foot, then I was thrown to the ground and his foot stomped into my rib cage. Damn it, more broken ribs. He was just about to bring his foot back down on me again, when I rolled over on my back and ripped his foot off with my jaws.

It hurt like hell, but I forced myself up and finished off the vampire before running towards Ness again. I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw Ness standing there freely, and was smirking at me with the dismembered vampire at her feet. Damn she was hot.

Seth and Leah both killed their vamps and didn't need my help, so I painfully trotted over to Ness and nuzzled her tenderly just to make sure she was Ok. She reached up to my face with her palm and reinforced her well being with a mental replay of her victory over the vampire that held her.

Nessie was not stronger than a vampire, so when she showed me how she overpowered him I was shocked. He was dragging her off into the woods, when Charlie started charging them resulting in the vampire being stunned and amused by the attacking human, so Nessie used that as a diversion and ripped his arm off before going for his throat. I couldn't help but think her violent vision was sexy; _damn what the hell is wrong with me?_

I looked over at Charlie who was leaning against a tree trying to catch his breath. His face was white as a ghost, and Sue was trying to console him but Charlie seemed to be lost in his own confusion to notice her.

Sue saw that she wasn't getting through to her husband, so she left him momentarily to run into the house to get some clothes for us to change into so we could help explain things. I'm bigger than Seth, so his shorts she got for me to wear were too tight, but at least it was better than being naked. _These things better be clean. _

After we phased back and dressed, I ran back to Nessie and wrapped her in my arms and she held on to me just as tight, but avoided touching my stomach area.

"Are you Ok?" I asked her franticly

"I already showed you that I was." She smiled and kissed my bare shoulder. "What about you, are your ribs broken?" She asked concerned while gently rubbing my mid-section.

"Yeah, but I think I'm going to need Carlisle to re-break them because I can feel them healing wrong, especially since I phased. I think shifting my shape just hurt my ribs even more, that was actually stupid of me." I said to her

"Charlie man, uhh, you Ok?" Seth was trying to talk to Charlie, but wasn't getting through."

"Charlie, the world isn't exactly what you thought it was." I told him. He finally broke out of his trance and looked up at me with a _duh_ face.

"No Really?" Charlie said sarcastically. "So…are all the Quileute's…wolves?" Charlie asked incredulously. He was actually taking it quite well.

"Uhh, no. there's what, like fifteen or something now?" I asked Seth not entirely sure how many were in Sam's pack.

"How?" He asked

"It's in our genes." I told him the story of the first wolf and when I mentioned vampire, his eyes doubled in size. I knew I should have probably left the vampire part out, but Charlie knew there was something up with the dismembered bodies that were still twitching on the ground, so I figured the truth was the best. "Seth, start a fire." I ordered him.

Charlie let my story sink in, then after a few minutes, he looked at Nessie suspiciously then asked me "And what is she? She's not exactly human herself" Charlie said because she was stronger than him and he saw her taking out the one vamp.

"I'm a hybrid." She said with pride.

"Hybrid? What does that mean?"

Seth had disappeared in the house after he and Leah put the vamp pieces into a trash bin on fire, and came out with a guilty expression on his face. "I called Edward, he's coming over." He said.

"Edward?" Charlie asked confused; Edward was supposed to have died with Bella in a boating accident while they were on their honeymoon.

"Charlie, I'm sorry but Nessie wasn't lying earlier when she said that Bella is still alive."

His face was pressed in hard disbelief, but then Edward and Emmet came running onto the scene, Charlie's mouth dropped. Edward ran straight over to Ness, and hugged her, then looked her over for any injuries, when he was satisfied that she was Ok, he came over to me and started poking at my ribs.

"Ouch, that hurts!" I yelled at him.

"I'm going to have to re-break them Jake." Edward told me apologetically.

"No way, I'd like a more experienced doctor to do it, where's Carlisle?" I asked him stubbornly.

"Oh, he's right behind you." I stupidly turned my back, and Edward grabbed a hold of my abdomen and squeezed strategically, sending loud cracks into the air.

"DAMN!" I screamed.

"Carlisle is out hunting, but you should be perfectly fine in a few hours or so. You're welcome." He said smugly before turning to Charlie who looked like he was cursing at him internally.

"Charlie, I'm sorry you had to find out like this." Edward said carefully. Charlie stepped forward to him, and went to punch him in the jaw, but Edward caught his fist.

"Charlie, I understand you're upset, but you punching me is only going to break your hand."

"What are you, and where the hell is my daughter." Charlie seethed noticing for the first time that Edward wasn't human.

"I'm a vampire Charlie, and I have been since long before you were born."

Charlie's face went from red to purple than back to red again before cooling to a flushed pink. If looks could kill a vampire, Edward would have been dead ten times over. After it seemed like the initial anger was through, Charlie stared at him for a long moment, then looked over at me, before turning his attention back to Edward.

"So the Quileute's hated the Cullen's, because it was a monster thing; werewolves vs. vampires?" Charlie asked with a shaky voice.

"Well, were all friends now." Seth chimed in.

"Bella?" Charlie breathed

Edward could hear what he meant, so he nodded slowly at him.

"Where?" Charlie asked as a tear rolled down his cheek.

"At the house" Edward said, and Charlie didn't even wait half a second before jumping in his car and racing away, obviously to go see his undead daughter.

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	22. Reunions and Monster ball

**Changing Tides**

Ch 22 – _Reunions and Monster ball_

…

Edward and I just looked at each other for a moment not really sure what to think or do, but then Edward took off running at full speed towards the Cullen house.

"Jake, I have to be there for that." Nessie said frantically.

"Alright, I'm going to go phase and you can ride on my back. Seth, drive the Vanquish over and we'll see you there." I decided that trying to beat Charlie there while driving, was not a good idea because we would have to speed past him to do it. Besides cutting through the forest and running at the speed of wolf was faster than taking the roads anyway.

I threw Seth the keys, and he couldn't have looked more excited to get to drive it. "You better not fart in there Seth, I mean it." I warned him. Sue got in the passenger seat, and Leah phased and was going to run with me and Ness.

Nessie climbed on my back, and we all set off for the Cullen's house. We got there a few minutes after Edward did, and he was already explaining what happened to a panicked Bella.

"Nessie, are you Ok?" She asked worriedly while running over to us and practically dragging her off my back and embracing her tightly.

"Mom, I'm fine I promise." Ness assured her.

We could hear Charlie's cruiser pulling off the freeway, so Leah and I went to separate areas of the surrounding forest to phase and dress in the clothes that we tied to our ankles.

"Edward, what am I supposed to say to him?" Bella started freaking out. "How am I supposed to apologize for years of lying about me even being alive?" Edward wrapped his arms around Bella comfortingly, and whispered something in her ear that made her smile and seemed to calm her nerves slightly.

We all stood there waiting like statues when Charlie came into view. I could see him looking wide eyed at our group, knowing he left before us. He seemed to make eye contact with each one of us before zeroing in on Bella, and that's where his eyes remained while he parked the car and walked slowly towards us.

"Bella?" Charlie asked sounding like he had a lump in his throat.

"Hi Dad." Bella said, then bit her bottom lip just like she always used to when she was nervous, just like Nessie still does on so many occasions.

There was a strained silence for several long moments, but then Bella tried to say something. "Dad, I'm really sor…"

Charlie interrupted by closing the distance between them, and wrapping his arms around her while he cried hysterically into her hair. Bella held him back and looked as though she would be crying too, if such thing was possible. Charlie either didn't seem to notice, or just didn't care how cold and hard Bella was; he had his daughter back and that was what was most important to him.

I could hear sniffling and something wet falling on my arm so I looked down and saw Nessie crying too just watching their reunion, and I had to admit that even I was fighting them back; it was an amazing sight to see.

"I just want to know one thing." Charlie said after regaining control of himself. "Are you Ok?"

"Yes dad, I really have had an amazing life." She said with conviction, and smiled looking back at Nessie. "I went into my marriage knowing that this was what I had to do to be with Edward, but I needed him more than anything and I regret that I had to lie to you, but everything else was so worth it."

Seth and Sue pulled up, and we all went into the house so the two humans could escape the freezing weather, though with it being a vampire's house, it was actually almost just as cold inside. Nessie understood before anyone else, and she turned on the heater for the first time in years.

It became obvious to Charlie that his wife was well aware of Bella's new life, but at the moment he didn't care about anything but catching up with Bella.

"So where have you been all this time, what have you been doing?" Charlie asked as we all sat in the living room.

"We've been all over really." Bella told him. "I got my law degree." She said slightly embarrassed.

"What?" Charlie said in astonishment. "Bells, that's amazing."

"Yeah, we've been living in New York for the past couple of years and I've been working in this great firm; I've never lost a case." She said rightfully proud of herself, but still embarrassed at the same time.

"I'm so proud of you sweet heart. This is all just so…surreal. I can't believe you are actually here and alive." Charlie looked like he was about to cry again, but he fought it and maintained control.

Nessie had wondered over to Edward and was absentmindedly playing with the hem of his shirt while practically sitting on his lap. Charlie looked over at them briefly and a confused look came across his face.

"So, how long have you known about all this Jake?" Charlie asked me seeming to be avoiding his real question.

"Uhh, well, I've known about Edward being a vampire since I first started phasing when I was sixteen, and I knew that Bella was planning to become one too, but I hadn't seen them since the wedding until about two weeks ago when we all got back into town."

"And you came into town with Carlisle's niece?" Charlie asked confused.

"Uhh…no. Nessie is"

"My daughter." Bella finished for me.

"What? How could Nessie be your daughter?" Charlie asked in disbelief.

"I got pregnant while on our honeymoon when I was still human, and she's the most amazing person that ever existed." Bella glowed.

Charlie looked back at Nessie with wide eyes, as if he was seeing her for the first time and she smiled at him. "Hi grandpa." She said casually.

"H..ha..how?" Charlie stuttered, even Sue looked shocked; so I guess Seth and Leah didn't tell her after all.

Charlie looked like he was counting backwards in his head, trying to make seventeen years fit into eight.

"I was only pregnant for a month, and then she was born completely perfect. But she grew fast and like the other hybrids we know, she fully matured at seven." Bella explained.

"There are others?" Sue asked with a look of concern.

"Yeah, we know five of them, they live in Brazil, all with the same father." Bella explained.

"And what happened to their mothers?" Sue was in tribal council mode, trying to learn what she could about a new species so it can be documented in their archives.

"They all died." Edward answered this time. "Bella is the only woman to survive a hybrid birth."

"But you didn't survive?" Sue didn't mean it as an insult, she was just trying to fully understand.

"No, I guess not technically, not human anyway. I did die, but Edward and Carlisle saved me, though I think the other mothers could have made it too if the vampire that fathered the hybrids would have cared enough to try." Bella said confidently.

"So you died giving birth?" Charlie asked quietly then looked over at Nessie again.

"No, my human life ended and two new lives began. I wanted to be a vampire, and I never thought it was possible to have a baby with Edward, none of us did, but I was OK with that. It wasn't until I actually felt her inside of me, that I realized how much I wanted to be a mother, her mother. She was born and my whole life changed for the better, and was complete. I know I was born to be with Edward, so we could bring her to life together, because this world needs her in it." Bella said with more love in her eyes than I ever saw there before.

Everyone was quiet for a very long tension filled minute. "I can't believe I'm a grandpa." Charlie said suddenly breaking the silence and everyone started laughing. Charlie got up and walked over to where Nessie was sitting with Edward. "I'm so sorry for the way I acted towards you." He told her with more tears in his eyes. Nessie stood up and wrapped her arms around his neck and he wrapped his around her waist.

"It's Ok; I probably shouldn't have just blurted it out like that, I'm sure it was hard for you to hear."

"You are so beautiful Nessie, just like your mother." Charlie praised.

"Nessie? Oh, _No_" Bella said annoyed and shot me a death glare. "Her name is Renesmee, as in Renee and Esme combined; no variations."

"Renesmee, well that's pretty, I like it." Charlie smiled at Ness.

"Her middle name is Carlie." Bella said softer. "As in Carlisle and Charlie combined"

Charlie grinned widely "Thanks Bells."

"I don't mind being called Nessie" She said quietly to Charlie. Bella glared at her.

Ness and Charlie went and sat on the couch along with Sue, and they just talked for a while getting to know each other better. Bella was chatting with them too, but she went somewhere and I wasn't sure where.

I was standing there, just minding my own business, when something cold grabbed my ear and twisted it really hard. "That's for naming my daughter after the Loch Ness monster." Bella said, and then she pulled my hair. "That's for crossing the line with her." Then she reached up on her tiptoes and hugged me tightly. "And that's for saving her life from the witches, and for today." She said and smiled.

I smiled too, and hugged her back. It was the first time that we've really spoken besides when she yelled at me when we first saw each other again. It actually felt really good hugging her, it felt right and was long overdue. Even though things will never be the same between us, I think things will actually be better, more balanced. We each have someone that we can't live without, and now we can just be friends without any of those other complications that I forced onto our relationship before.

The sky grew dark, but it was only early afternoon, and Emmet came charging into the room. "It's time." He said excitedly. We all just stared at him. "Oh hey there Papa Swan." Emmet greeted Charlie.

"Emmet, we're not going to play today, Charlie is visiting." Edward said to him annoyed.

"Ahh, come on. I bet Charlie would love to see a monster game of baseball. Jacob, what do you say, are you and your boys…and girl, in?" Emmet asked.

"If there's going to be a game, we're in." I told him. "But Nessie is on our team." I added.

"No way, she's our best pitcher." Emmet protested.

"You have more players than we have." I argued

"Fine, I'm sure you guys will need all the help you can get." Emmet smirked.

Charlie agreed to go watch our monster game, he actually was going to umpire, but Sue had no desire so she went home. It was eight against eight; Nessie played for our team and along with my pack of five, we also got Paul and Jared to play with us.

"I can't believe that you turned into a traitor." Emmet teased Nessie as he came up to bat; Ness was pitching for us.

"Don't take it personally Met, they just look better in cut offs." Nessie said before sending the ball flying past Emmet."

"Strike" Charlie said, sounding pleasantly surprised.

"That a go Babe!" I yelled from outfield.

Ness pulled back and fired another one. This time however, Emmet slammed into it, shattering the bat into splinters and the ball went zooming through the sky like a meteor.

"Uhh, that a be a foul ball." Charlie said reservedly. Emmet looked back and scowled at him.

"You're nuts, it was on the right side of that tree." Emmet argued.

"Hey, no arguing with the ump!" Seth called from left field.

"Saw what I saw." Charlie said with a shrug.

"That's 'cause your human eyes can't see very well."

Without warning Ness shot another one and Emmet turned just in time for the ball to smack into Paul's catching glove.

"Hey, I wasn't ready." Emmet complained. Ness giggled. "Hey little girl, you better watch yourself; I know where you sleep." He yelled at her.

"You're out" Charlie said smugly.

We switched sides because we were playing one out instead of the traditional three. Alice was pitching, and Seth was batting first. Alice zoomed it over the plate, and Seth was shocked from the speed of it. The next pitch Seth was more prepared for, and he hit it hard sending it rocketing through the woods; Edward ran after it while Seth ran the bases. He was just about to touch home base, when the ball found itself in Jasper's catching glove. Damn, Edward threw it so fast that we didn't even see it.

"Out" Charlie said so we switched sides again.

Edward came up to bat next, and Nessie was loving the idea of going up against him. Apparently, all their games before, they were always on the same team.

She zoomed it over the plate and Edward gave a poor attempt at swinging. "Daddy, you have to _try_ and hit it." She complained.

"I did" He lied.

She threw another, and this time he swung too soon. She glared at him.

"It's because I'm a mind reader, I saw your plans to throw before you actually did, and it confused me." He said casually.

"Daaad" She said annoyed.

"Come On Edward, Damn!" Emmet yelled frustrated.

The next ball that she threw, Edward hit, but the ball went straight up, and Nessie caught it.

"Out." Charlie yelled, and Edward smiled.

"You suck" Nessie said angry that Edward didn't even try, but smiled back at him anyway.

It was my turn to bat, so I readied myself at the plate and waited for the smallest vampire to pitch. She looked past me at her mate who was catching, and she winked. In that moment, a wave of sadness washed over me, and I was so upset, that I didn't even care about the ball flying past me.

"That's not fair uncle Jazz." Nessie yelled at him.

"Oh come on, just having some fun." Jasper said, but I immediately felt better.

We started out keeping score, but after a while it didn't matter anymore and we just laughed and had a great time messing around. Charlie never seemed to have anymore issues with anything he saw; he handled being thrust into the supernatural world as well as Bella did, and seemed as comfortable as someone could be in that situation. But I knew that he would have had a much harder time accepting everything if he hadn't thought Bella was dead for so long. Having his daughter alive and well, made him believe anything was possible, even monsters and his rapidly growing, fully matured, eight year old granddaughter.

It started to get late, so we headed in for the evening but planned on a rematch during the next thunder storm. Paul drove Jared, Quill, and Embry back to LaPush while Seth and Leah drove with Charlie home for the evening, but not until after Charlie asked Bella about a hundred times if they were still going to be there in the morning. She promised him that they wouldn't leave again without saying goodbye, he didn't seem to believe her but he huffed and said he'd be back first thing in the morning.

I stayed at the Cullens for a little while longer, Ness and I sat on the porch just watching the lightning as it light up the black sky.

"Jake, what do you think is going to happen with us?" Nessie asked suddenly.

"We're going to handle these witches and everything will be ok. I'm going to make sure you are safe Ness, I swear to you." I tried assuring her.

"No, I mean after all of that. What's going to happen with _us_, you and me? We were planning on running away and getting married, is that still going to happen?" she asked taking me aback.

"When we talked about all that, things were completely different between us. You were worried that your family and my pack would try to kill each other, and I just wanted to be with you no matter what."

"But now you don't want to be with me no matter what?" She asked sounding upset.

"No, of course I do. But honey, you're a child."

"I am not a child." She stood up and started walking away, but I grabbed her arm.

"Ok, child wasn't the right word. You are just so young, and there is plenty of time for all of that later. We have forever, and I just think that it would be better for everyone if we just waited a few years." (_Or ten)._

"Jake, that's stupid. I'm fully matured and I'm not going to change whatsoever, so what is there to be waiting for?"

"You're eight. I just can't forget about that, and I know that your parents would feel more comfortable if we waited too."

"My parents? Ok, so now you're all buddy-buddy with them, and what they want has become more important then what we want?" She was starting to get upset.

"No, it's not about them, it's about me. I don't want to marry an eight year old." I said harshly. I didn't mean to use that tone, but my frustrations about her age has been building up inside of me since I first found out, and it just kind of exploded.

"So let me guess, you wish you could take it all back. You hate that we were so close before, don't you?" She asked quietly.

"Physically? Yes." I said slowly, hoping I wasn't hurting her feelings.

She shook her head at me, but her emotions were unreadable.

"Hey there Beautiful." A voice came from the other side of the yard.

"Nahuel?" Nessie asked excitedly before getting up and racing towards the voice. Great, perfect timing…Pr!ck.

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	23. Bread Crumbs

**Changing Tides**

A/N_: Ok another quick update, I had some free time and was on a roll, so here it is. If you haven't reviewed Ch 22 yet, please do so before reading this chapter, I'd really appreciate it. Ok, time for some angst._

Ch 23 – _Bread Crumbs_

…

"Renesmee, I'm so glad you are with your family and safe." Nahuel said as they hugged

"How did you know where to find us?" Nessie asked him.

"I spoke with your dad last week." Nahuel looked up at me and reflexively pulled Nessie behind himself slightly, like he was defending her from me. "What are you doing here?" He asked me suspiciously.

"I live here, so since we are all home, why don't you go back to yours." I said coldly.

"Is he threatening you?" He asked Nessie.

"No, really he's ok. He's actually coincidentally an old friend of my mom's, so he's here visiting her." _Ouch, that wasn't cool._

"Oh well, that's odd. Why would your mom be friends with a wolf boy? And how creepy that you ended up dating him." He said to her.

"Yeah creepy." Ness said while giving me a dirty look before grabbing Nahuel's arm and pulling him in the house. I stood there outside for a few minutes trying to reevaluate how the hell everything got so screwed up again in such a short period of time. She was obviously mad at me for calling her a child and not wanting to move forward with our relationship until she was older, but for her to say those things, was more than harsh.

I considered going back to the hotel, but the thought of that Brazilian freak hanging out with my Ness, made me have to go into the house.

Everyone was smiling and greeting Nahuel fondly, like as if they were all just great friends.

"Hey, mutt, did you meet Nahuel? He's cute don't you think?" Rose whispered to me as she walked by. "Maybe you can be their pet when they get married." _Oh hell no_.

I looked back at Ness, who was hanging on Nahuel, and he had his arm around her waist way too low, and I couldn't help but have a strong desire to rip his throat out.

"Hey, don't worry about it; she's just trying to make you jealous." Edward whispered then he went back doing whatever he was doing before. Ok, so maybe her having a mind reading father wasn't such a bad thing.

"Nahuel, you must be so tired after such a long trip, I just made up the guest room for you, please make yourself at home." Esme said being way too hospitable. Damn it.

"Uh Oh, I know that look, what's wrong?" Bella asked as she walked over to me.

"I really don't like that guy." I said between gritted teeth.

"Yeah, Renesmee told us how you guys didn't get along while at the school. Sorry about that." She said sympathetically.

"Why did Edward call him then?" I asked her

"He didn't. Nahuel called him worried about Renesmee's well being, and he mentioned that we were with her and she was safe. He causally asked where we were and Edward told him, but he can't read minds over the phone, so he didn't know that he was planning on coming here." Bella explained.

"Good night Momma" Nessie came over to hug her, and then looked up at me. "I'm going to hang out with Nahuel tomorrow; show him around, maybe go into town or something, so I won't be here."

"Ok, well I wouldn't mind going into town myself; what time are we leaving?" I asked knowing she had no intentions on inviting me to go with them.

"You can't come with us. Neither of you guys get along, so it's just better that you don't cross paths anymore than necessary."

Bella looked at me knowing that I'd be fuming inside. "Honey, I'd feel more comfortable if Jacob went with you. For safety."

"Mom, you know, that's kind of messed up of you. Nahuel is just friend, Jacob is the one you should be worried about me being alone with. He actually used to sneak into my dorm room at night and make Leah go sleep somewhere else. We were up all night just making…"

"Nessie? What the hell is the matter with you?" I asked her angrily.

She just glared at me for a moment. "What? I thought she was your best friend? Don't best friends talk about their sex lives with each other? Don't worry mom, we're not having sex anymore, Jacob has become Mr. Self Righteous Prude."

"Renesmee, I think it's time for you to go to bed now." Edward stepped in angrily.

"Fine." She said and sulked upstairs without another word.

"I'm sorry." I said quietly to Edward and Bella. "I gotta go." And I left quickly. I didn't want to be in that house in that moment, in fact I didn't want to be anywhere in that moment. How could Ness be so pissed at me that she would act like that? I charged off into the woods as fast as I could, and ran until dawn.

I finally crashed in the forest about a mile outside of the Cullen house, and when I finally did wake up, the sun was high in the sky. I raced back to the house in a panic, but I was too late, Ness had already left for the day with Nahuel.

"Where did they go?" I asked as Bella came out of the house.

"Jake, I think maybe you should just give her some space." Bella said carefully.

"Space, now? No way. Not with the witches out to get us, and Nahuel out to get Nessie."

"Ok listen; you have to understand how hard it is for us as parents, especially Edward, to hear about your little escapades. We were all pretty upset last night, and we don't blame you for it, but things just got too heavy too fast, and I think a little time out would be best. Not for long, just let her spend the day with her friend, then come back tonight and maybe she'll be ready to talk about everything."

I shook my head, but as much as it killed me, I said "Fine" and went to LaPush. I spent the day alone in my hotel room, just sulking and trying to sleep away my issues, when there was a loud banging on my door.

"Hey Jake. How ya doing? I went by the Cullens and Edward told me that you and Ness had a fight." Seth said. "Want me to kick Nigel's ass for you?" Seth joked.

"His name is actually Nahuel, and no, I don't want you to fight him, we were actually fighting before he came; he was just the icing on the cake."

I forced myself to give her even more space then Bella asked for, and I stayed away for two miserable days. Being away from her was more than just emotionally draining; it was physically agonizing as well. I couldn't eat, and when I slept, I had horrible nightmares. Everything from Ness being hurt, to her and Nahuel being together. The last dream was so graphic, that I couldn't take it anymore, so I went to go see her.

I walked right in the house, maybe it was rude, but I really didn't care at that point.

"Hey Jake." Alice said as she rounded the corner.

"Where's Nessie?" I asked her.

"Uhh, she and Nahuel went hunting." Alice said quickly, and then tried to change the subject. "Bella and Edward are actually in LaPush at Charlie's house, they asked Sam for permission but Seth and Leah has to stay there with them. Okey-dokey, I have a shopping date in Seattle with Rose, so see-ya" Alice blurred out of the room. What the hell was that about?

I decided that I couldn't wait until Ness got back; I needed to see her right away, so I followed her scent. I decided not to phase because I didn't want to have to get redressed again, and I could smell her perfectly well with my human nose anyway.

I hiked for about two hours when I heard Ness and Nahuel's low murmurs. I walked slowly because I was being nosy and wanted to hear what they were talking about.

"I can't help it, that's just how I feel." Nahuel said.

"I'm just so confused right now, and I don't know how to feel." Ness said while pulling at her hair.

"Sweetie, I've loved you your whole life. You and me, we're what's natural, we are the same and we were made to be together."

It took every last bit of internal strength that I had to not run out to the clearing they were in, and rip his head off, but I needed to see what she was going to say.

"Nahuel, you have always been my best friend, and I don't want to lose you, but I love Jacob. I sometimes wish that I didn't because we are just so different, but I can't help the way I feel either."

"I don't doubt that you love him, but you have to see that you love me too. I can give you more than he can you know. We are the same species, and we can have a family some day, you aren't even compatible with the wolf."

"You don't know that." She said quietly

"Ren, my father is a scientist; I may know more about it than you think."

"I don't care, I really don't. I don't even want to be a mother anyway."

"You told me that he said he hated you, that wasn't that long ago you know." Nahuel said.

"He was upset; he just found out what I was and it upset him. I mean we're natural enemies, and we had been together, and I lied to him."

"So you're natural enemies, and he hates you, and he thinks you're a kid?" They were both silent for a minute. "I just want you to consider the fact that you love me too; I can feel that you do. If he hadn't come along when he did, we'd probably be talking about marriage right now. I don't want to wait, you are fully matured now and that's how I see you; as the beautiful, amazing, woman that you are. You are not a child, and you do not deserve to be talked to the way that he has talked to you on more than one occasion."

"I do love you, but…"

"But nothing." Nahuel reached over and planted his lips on Nessie's. I thought she was going to push him off, and if she couldn't physically do it because he was stronger than her, I would jump in and rip his arms off, but she didn't. Instead, she reached up, held him tightly, and kissed him back.

I felt sick, like my whole world just came crashing down again. I wanted to tear them apart, to yell and scream at her that she belonged to me, but I loved her too much to do that. If he was really what she wanted, then I had to respect that and let her go. Nothing about imprinting says that the bonded pair had to be a couple, and even Quill said that if Claire grows up to pick someone else, he would be ok and still be there for her, no matter what. Our job as imprinter is to be whatever our imprintee needs us to be, and right now it was obvious that Nessie didn't need me to be her boyfriend.

I left just as quietly as I came, and went looking for a hole to crawl into so I could just die. I wandered around for the rest of the day, just feeling completely numb. Damn vampires, and damn vampire hybrids too. I allowed myself to hate them, to boil over with anger and let it fester for a while. But as the sky started changing colors, I found myself back in the clearing Nessie had been in. She was gone, so I walked back to the Cullen house because I was probably a masochist, but more so because my need to protect her was as strong as ever and I needed to make sure she was OK.

I got back to the house, and went right inside again, without knocking. Everyone looked up at me all having a range of emotions written on their face. Some were regretful, some looked like they felt sorry for me, but Rose's smug face made it obvious that they knew what happened with Ness and Nahuel.

"Jake" Bella said hesitantly, but then Nessie came into the room from the kitchen and grabbed my hand leading me back outside.

I knew what she was going to say, but I still needed to hear the words to really make me believe them.

"Jake, we're leaving." She said suddenly. Ok, well I wasn't expecting that.

"Ok, where are we going?" I asked with a horse voice that sounded like I had been screaming, even though I hadn't been, at least not with my voice.

"Not you, just us." She said looking uncomfortable. "Jake, everything that has happened has just further proved that our worlds don't mesh. We should have recognized the signs from the beginning, instead of fighting nature and each other."

"Everyone fights." I said quietly.

"Jake, I'm sorry." Tears started rolling down her cheeks. "But I need to be away from you, I need time to figure out my life. You said that I'm still a kid, well maybe you're right, maybe I just need to grow up. My family and I don't belong here anymore, we need to move on. My parents promised Charlie that they are going to keep in touch and we'll come back to visit."

"I can't just let you go." My words were just a whisper.

"You said that imprinting means you have to do what's best for me right? Well I need this, and it's for the best. Please Jake, please just let me go." She put her hand in my chest and looked deep into my eyes, before turning and walking back into the house. I stood there deadened, completely lacking the ability to move as if her words anesthetized me.

I cried out to her and begged her to stay with me; I swore to her that I was wrong, that I'd leave now with her and get married if that's what she wanted. But my lips were as frozen as my heart, and not a single word escaped my mouth, leaving my pleas locked inside my mind where I know they'll stay forever.

The pain I felt losing Bella, was nothing compared to this pain. Nessie was my soul mate, and I didn't know how to live without her anymore, how to survive without being able to see her and hold her in my arms. I thought about my mistakes, about the million tiny little things that I could have done differently, but none of that mattered now, the damage was already done.

Without my permission, my legs began moving and walking away from the house. Nessie was right, I had to do what she needed me to do, and if that meant leaving, then I couldn't hold myself there. Her needs had control over me, and they were even stronger than the alpha command; they took away my free will, and I was a complete slave to them. If she needed me to go, then no force on this earth could keep me there.

I walked slowly however, and with each painstaking step I took, I left more and more of myself behind. I felt like Hansel and Gretel, leaving _bread crumbs_ as I went so I wouldn't lose my way, but instead of bread, I left pieces of my heart and those pitiless birds ate them anyway, so there was no way to find my way home again, leaving me lost forever.

I eventually made it back to LaPush, and my pack was waiting for me at the hotel.

"Hey man, Edward called and told us that you and Nessie broke up and they were leaving again. What happened?" Seth asked concerned.

I just shook my head, still not remembering how to speak.

The four of them just sat there with me and waited until I was ready to talk. It must have been hours, but they didn't seem to mind. Finally a thought occurred to me. My job was to protect her, but I couldn't do that unless I was with her…or could I?

"I'm going back to Massachusetts. I don't want any of you to come, those witches are just too unpredictable, but I need to take that threat away from Nessie. It's the only thing I can do." I said determinedly.

"We've been gone almost three weeks, what are you going to say to them?" Leah asked.

"Actually, it's only been one week, because winter break lasted for two of the weeks so everyone was gone for that time. I'll just tell them that I had a family emergency or something, I'll get Rachel to call the headmaster."

"We were gone for the championship game and we were there on a sport scholarship." Embry said. "They are going to be pissed."

"Well, they have other sports that I'm sure they would be happy to have me participate in, so my scholarship will be fine." I figured.

"Well, I'm going too." Seth announced.

"No way Seth, it's too dangerous."

"Yeah, dangerous if you go at it alone. We made it out together before, and we'll do it again." Seth said confidently.

"You jump, I jump, Rose." Embry quoted Titanic.

"Guys, look, I've already screwed up enough and the last thing I need is getting you all killed."

"Oh, shove it Jake." Leah said forcefully. "We all want to go back, so if we die then it's only on us. Besides, we all had our own reasons for going to that school in the first place, apart from you being there. We all want to go to college and make something of ourselves, so this is our chance. So unless you want to use your little alpha command on us, we are going back with you." Leah said confidently.

So the four of us were headed back to the Berkshire School in Massachusetts. Sue and Rachel called the school and said that our grandfather died, which would explain our sudden absence and since we were all playing cousins, then the story covered all of us. Quill had to stay because of Claire, but he refused to rejoin Sam's pack; instead, he would remain linked to us and promised to be there as fast as he could when we needed him. In the mean time, Quill and Sue would be researching witches, trying to learn all their weaknesses so we could end this as quickly as possible.

The further I got from Nessie, the harder it was to breathe, but I stayed focused on the task ahead and left knowing that I was trying to make her life better and safe again.

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	24. Back in the Game

**Changing Tides**

A/N: _Another quick update, this was actually finished yesterday with the last chapter, but I wanted to get some reviews before I posted this one. Truth be told, I write a few chapters a night sometimes, because I write quickly, but I try to space out the publishing so people have time to review. But the last chapter made some people upset, so I decided to update again right away. I hope you like it, please review._

Ch 24 – _Back in the Game_

…..

So the first thing we had to do was meet with the athletics director and the superintendent to make sure we could keep our scholarships. So we agreed to play…hockey. Damn I didn't even know how to skate, but really how hard could it be? And in the spring time, we would have to play lacrosse; I never played that game before, nor did I even know the rules, but the baseball teams were pretty much full and they figured that our size would benefit the game of lacrosse.

Seth, Embry and I got our old room back, but Leah had to switch, apparently some new students got her old room. Actually, there seemed to be quite a few new students at the school, which surprised me. We got new elective classes, but all the other classes were the same, though we had to take extra tests to make up for the week we missed.

Monday went off without a hitch, but our first hockey practice was something for the history books. This was the first time Embry and I had ever put on ice skates, and it was an extremely foreign feeling. The coach looked at us like we were physically incompetent, and we were. I hated feeling like I had no control over my body, but the longer we spent on the ice, the easier it got. Seth skated circles around us, and I'm sure Leah could too, but she was put on the girl's team, which seriously pissed her off.

_The only thing worse than playing against humans in sports, is playing against female humans_. - Leah complained as we were patrolling that night.

_I don't know sis, those chicks looked pretty tough_. – Seth disagreed with her.

_Not tough enough_. – Leah huffed

_So, isn't it kind of strange that none of us ran into the witches today?_ – Embry for once had his mind in the right place.

_Well, none of us even had classes with them before, so maybe we just haven't crossed paths; it's a big school._ – I thought.

I spent that night lying awake. I couldn't sleep, all I kept thinking about was how badly I wanted to go sneak into Nessie's room, but then I had to keep reminding myself that she wasn't even there. Tomorrow was Tuesday, and had things not gotten so screwed up, I would have seen her in class, whether we were fighting or not. The whole thing made me want to kill those damn witches even more.

The next morning I had a hard time getting out of bed, I decided that I didn't even want to go to Spanish class, what would be the point anyway? I couldn't pass it without her help.

"Get up idiot." Embry ordered.

"No I suck at Spanish, I'm going to fail anyway." I said then grabbed my pillow and re positioned it over my face. "Embry, can you just press down on this pillow, until I suffocate…please?" I asked with a muffled voice.

Embry grabbed the pillow and threw it out the window. "Go fetch it" He said under his breath.

"Damn it" I said, but didn't retaliate against him because I knew he was just trying to help me.

"You know we can't miss Jake." Embry told me. Seth had an earlier elective class, so he was already gone for the day.

"I know…Why the hell did we come back to this school again?" I asked groggily

"Uhh, how about to end things with the witches, graduate, and then maybe even go to college so we can actually have decent lives." Embry listed.

Then a thought occurred to me. "Why the hell didn't we just have our high school diplomas faked, and then tried out for a college team?" Embry and I just stared at each other for a moment, before he came up with an answer.

"Because your dad wanted you finishing high school, and college coaches do a lot more research on their player's histories. They would have wanted to talk to previous coaches that we played for and all that stuff."

"Oh right. I guess that makes since; so we better not screw it up with these coaches then if the college ones are going to be talking to them." I didn't actually plan on going to college myself anymore, what would be the point? Nothing mattered without Nessie; I was only there to finish off the witches so she could be safe again.

We finished getting ready, and before I knew it, we were sitting at our old table in Mr. Villa's Spanish class. I couldn't take my eyes off the empty desk in front of me where _She_ used to sit, and I actually had to fight the urge to smell the chair to see if any of her scent lingered. I took a deep breath to see if I could smell her without being so creepy, and was shocked when her uniquely sweet scent filled my airway.

I looked up towards the door, and there she was staring at me. We locked eyes, she cracked a half smile before fixing her face back into a hard mask and walked over to her seat. She sat without saying a word, and tossed her hair over her shoulder sending me waves of her amazing aroma right into my face; just like she did that first day of school.

It was amazing how much better I felt in that instant, like I could finally find my footing and was no longer floating. It didn't matter in that moment that she chose Nahuel over me, all that mattered was that she was there. But her being there also sent fear down my spine. Those witches were still out for her blood, and if she was still mad at me, how was I going to protect her?

The tardy bell rang, but the teacher wasn't in yet, so I took that time to talk to her.

"Nessie?" no answer, she refused to turn and even look at me. "Ness, I need to talk to you." but still nothing. I got up and squeezed myself into the tiny desk next to her, and scooted it closer to her.

"Just tell me why you came back here, and what the hell was your dad thinking letting you anyway with those witches here trying to hurt you?"

"Jake, its fine ok, I'm fine. Why did you come back here?" She asked without looking at me.

"Attention class" The principle came into the room. "Mr. Villa has decided to retire early, so you have a new teacher. Please welcome Mr. Whitlock, he is an excellent teacher and I expect everyone to give him the respect I know you are all capable of." Then he left.

Jasper looked at Nessie, then back at me and Embry and smirked. "Since when is Jasper a teacher?" I asked Ness, she still wouldn't look at me, but she answered anyway.

"My dad is like twice as overprotective than you are, what makes you think he'd let me come here without protection." She explained.

"Why come back at all?" I just couldn't think that anything was worth the risk.

"I wanted to finish high school. Besides do you think that my family wants to be in hiding and constantly looking over our shoulder for a potential witch attack?" She said casually but quietly so none of our fellow students could hear.

"I thought you wanted to run off and get married right away, so why finish high school?" I whispered.

"Right, and who the hell am I supposed to be marrying?" She whispered back.

"Mr.…Wolfe?" Jasper asked out loud so everyone could hear.

"Yes, Mr. Whitlock?" I asked.

"It says on this seating chart that I have here, that you should be sitting in the back on the table with Mr. Khall."

"Yeah, well, this seat was empty so I'd rather just sit here."

"Well I believe that desk is protesting that idea; it looks like the thing is going to buckle under your massiveness. You are truly a beast, what on Earth do they feed you boy? Please return to your table so we can begin with the lesson." Jasper said and I complied but shot him an angry look.

A girl in the front of the class raised her hand, and Jasper called on her. "Mr. Whitlock, you look so young, how old are you anyway?"

"I was actually just about to tell you'all a little bit more about myself. My name is Jasper Whitlock, I'm twenty six, and I'm from Texas so you may notice my southern charm coming out a bit. If you goggle my name, a civil war veteran will pop up, and that my friends, is my ancestor and my namesake. He was a brilliant solider, and that's where I'd like to begin my lesson today."

"Mr. Whitlock" A guy on the other side of the class said. "This is Spanish, not US History." He said pompously, looking for a laugh.

"I know what class I'm in, boy." Jasper got into the kids face and completely scared the kid crapless, with his mincing glare and intimidating tone. He went back to the front of the class and smiled at himself before continuing. "In the south, the Spanish and Mexican influences were vast and many young soldiers fell victim to the beautiful allure of the Mexican woman. The women would speak in their native Spanish tongue, and men would be completely helpless under their power…"

Jasper went on giving us a history lesson, and randomly threw in things about Spanish just to tie it in, but it almost seemed as though he was telling his own history instead of anything that would be worth these kids knowing. I stopped listening after a while and just soaked in Nessie's scent knowing she was going to take off on me as soon as the class was over.

"Ok, pop quiz" Jasper announced suddenly. "I want these sentences translated into Spanish." Jasper wrote some phrases on the board, and we had three minutes to write the Spanish sentence on a piece of paper. Crap.

I had no idea what the proper translation was, so I wrote something stupid like what a Spanish speaking six year old would write. Jasper collected the papers, and told us to study with the person next to us because he wanted to grade the papers right then, so he'd know where we all were in our Spanish abilities. Ness didn't have anyone sitting next to her, so she got up and walked over to the other side of the room to study with a couple girls over there.

"Dude, this is nuts. I wonder how many of the Cullens are actually here." Embry said quietly, but of course Jasper heard him and looked up with a wink.

"At least Ness has some protection; I just hope it's enough." I said

"Are you kidding, this place is going to erupt in a massive war, I just hope there is no human causalities." Embry said. "Hey, isn't Jasper the vamp that has the hardest time being around humans?" He added quietly, Jasper ignored him.

"Ok class, for the most part I'm very impressed. Some of you need a little extra help however." Jasper said while looking at me. He passed out all the tests just in time for the dismissal bell, so I glanced down at mine and was pleasantly surprised that he gave me a hundred percent. Maybe having him as a teacher wasn't going to be so bad after all.

Ness collected her things and raced out of the room, so I ran after her. The stench in the hallway was strong, concentrated vampire.

"Hey there Pup." Emmet said while standing there with Ness by his side. "I just got my roster as the new hockey coach, and guess whose name was scribbled down? Looks like we're going to be spending a lot of time together." He said with a sadistic smile. "Hey by the way, I had no idea that dogs could skate, this should be awesome." Then he and Nessie took off walking away, and of course I followed. We walked quietly until we passed the cafeteria, then he asked her "Are you going to be Ok?" She nodded so he took off towards the teacher's lounge, probably to meet Rose. I wonder what she's teaching; how to castrate men, no doubt.

"Hey" Bella said excitedly as she came out from the cafeteria with Edward. "I didn't know you were going to be here."

"Well that's funny; I didn't know you were going to be here either. So what are you guys teaching?"

"We're not" Edward answered. "We're students." He said with a smile and Bella rolled her eyes. "Oh come on honey, this is your first vampire high school experience, and it's not even a whole school year. We usually start out as sophomores, so count yourself lucky."

"Well, you guys never went to boarding schools before, you got to be normal when school was out for the day, but this is like hell 24-7. I just don't know how you are going to handle it." She told him sounding concerned.

"Me? You are having this hard of a time and it's only our second day." He said back to her.

"Well, we snuck out last night, but that's not going to happen every night, what are you going to do without me to take your frustrations out on?" She said while kissing him and biting his lower lip. Gross.

"Hey, you guys promised to keep the PDA on a down low." Ness injected.

"Hey, I'm just marking my territory. Have you seen these ravenous teen girls?" Bella asked incredulously while wrapping her arm around Edward. Ness looked up at me, but then looked away right away.

I noticed how all the girls that walked by us, gave Edward the same hungry looks as they had given me when I first started school here, damn these girls only think about one thing.

"Well honey, you know," Edward said to Bella "The last time I was in school, I did fall victim to an obsessed teen girl, so it could happen again."

"Oh really, well that guy back there, do you see him." She pointed to some guy sitting on a bench. "He already propositioned me, and he wasn't the first. So I suggest you watch yourself." She said to him sternly.

"Who, that Mike Newton look-a-like? Man I always knew you had a thing for him." Edward teased.

"Mike was a tool." I said quietly, mostly to myself.

"See Love? Even Jake agrees that Mike wasn't worth even being friends with." Edward said to her.

"Oh. My. God. Let it go Edward, it was like nine years ago." She said annoyed and started walking off.

"I can't let it go, I'm a vampire and my memories stay with me forever. You have at least another fifty years before I let it go even a little." Edward joked and Bella groaned. "I just can't believe you actually went on a date with him.

"It wasn't a date Edward, Jacob was with us. Jake tell Edward it wasn't a date."

"It wasn't a date." I said mechanically.

"See? You know, of all the human memories I wanted to hold onto, that was not one of them, so why do you keep reminding me?" She said frustrated.

"I'm sorry Love, I was just kidding." Edward said and they both smiled and grabbed a hold of each other planting their lips together.

"Ugh! They are so infuriating." Ness said half-heartedly and started walking away.

"Where are you going?" I asked in one notch below panic.

"To get something to eat, I'm starving." She said walking into the cafeteria.

"You hate cafeteria food." I told her with a smile.

"It's better than standing there and watching Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb making out." She said annoyed.

"Where's Nahuel?" I asked suddenly, taking us both by surprise.

"Well my guess would be Brazil, why?" She asked confused.

I looked at her for a minute just as confused. "Well, I thought you two were…you know."

She had an insulted expression on her face. "Why would you think that?"

"Because I saw you kissing him and I heard your conversation." I said forcefully. _Damn, I really needed to work on my anger._

She looked like she was really upset, and a tear flowed down her cheek. "How? How did you see that?"

"I followed your scent, and maybe I shouldn't have been eavesdropping, but I couldn't help it." I said quietly.

More tears flowed and she bowed her head as a response. "That was wrong. He kissed me and I kissed him back because I wanted to feel something, anything for him, so I wouldn't love you so much. But there was nothing, and I told him to leave."

My heart felt like it was about to beat out of my chest. "Why did you push me away if you didn't want to be with him?"

"Because I didn't want you coming back to this school, I didn't want you to fight the witches."

"Oh come on Ness, don't give me that. You're ok with your family fighting, but not me?" I said disbelieving her explanation.

"It was their idea to come here. Greg threatened my dad when he was here looking for me, he said he wouldn't rest until my whole coven was dead. He never said anything about you, he wasn't going to try and hurt you, but if you jump in and try and save me again then he'll refocus his assault on you. I can't have you hurt because of me." She finally looked at me.

"Babe." I took a deep breath. "Stop trying to protect me, you broke up with me before because you were worried about me, and that needs to stop now. It doesn't matter what kind of danger you are in, it's my job to protect you." I said with fervor.

She shook her head. "No, it's not Jake. You didn't ask to be imprinted to me; I'm not your responsibility."

"No, I didn't ask for it, but I sure am thankful that I did. You have turned my life upside down, so many times, that I don't even know which way is up anymore. But we keep finding our way back to each other, and we always will, because everything that I am, exists for you. You are my whole life, and I don't even know how to breathe without you."

"I can't, Jake, I can't be around you anymore." She started really crying now. I was vaguely aware that we were drawing an audience, even a couple of vamps were watching us now, but I didn't care.

"Why?" I asked her desperately.

"Because…I can't just be your friend. It hurts too bad to be around you, and know that you don't want to kiss me and hold me as much as I do you."

I had to be the biggest moron that ever lived to make her feel like that. Her age has always been an issue since I first met her, of course her being eight was a bigger issue than if she was seventeen, but Nahuel was right, she wasn't a child and she deserved better than the strain that I forced on our relationship.

I cradled her face in my palms and leaned into her, kissing her lips gently but with more passion than I ever experienced before. She wrapped her arms around my neck, and I let mine drop to her waist. We held each other and kissed until the lunch period ended, and then she pulled herself away from me.

"Don't ever leave me again." I said softly.

"I'm so sorry Jake."

I shook my head at her. "I need you to promise me."

"I promise." She whispered

"That's not good enough" I mumbled against her shoulder as I kissed her there.

She reached back up to my neck, and continued on until both of her hands were tangled in my hair.

"I promise that I'll never leave you again." She breathed. She leaned her head against my chest and moved her hands down my back until they rested on the top of my pants, and she locked them into place.

I looked around and noticed that everyone went off to class, everyone but a couple of vampires waiting close by.

"I guess we should get to class." I said finally.

"No, I don't want to be away from you right now." She held on to me even tighter.

"Why don't you guys just take the rest of the day off? We'll cover for you." Edward surprisingly offered.

Ness pulled away from me again, and ran over to her parents and kissed them both on the cheek, before grabbing my arm and dragging me off somewhere. I had no idea where she was leading me, but I didn't care either. We were together, truly and completely; and there wasn't a force in this world that I would allow to come between us again.

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	25. Nature

**Changing Tides**

A/N: _Warning, this chapter contains mature sexual themes, and a whole lot of fluffy mush_.

Ch 25 - _Nature_

…

"Babe, where are we going?" I asked as we ducked away from the view of a passing by school staff member.

"Shhh" She giggled while pressing her lips against mine.

We waited until the coast was clear, then she grabbed my hand and we were off again. To where? I have no idea.

We reached the wall that surrounded the campus, and Ness looked behind us one more time to make sure that no one was around, before jumping up and catching the ledge, and pulling herself on top. She crouched down and arched her back like a cat, before gesturing for me to follow. She was so freaking sexy.

"Come on pup, come chase me." She smiled seductively and disappeared on the other side.

I was agile, but not really graceful, so my scaling of the wall was nowhere near as cool as hers was, but it got the job done.

She stood there waiting for me with a smirk on her face, and then she bit her bottom lip. "Ready?"

"For what?" I asked but she shook her head.

"Nope, no asking questions; but I'll give you a hint, I'm starving." She smiled and took off running.

I followed her but I already knew that she was faster than me in human form, so I just enjoyed watching her from behind as I followed several paces after her. I figured we were going hunting, but she was having way too much fun thinking that she was fooling me, so I just let her continue to think that. I felt a little uneasy being so exposed out in the woods, when I had no idea where the witches were or what their plans were. But Ness and I needed this time to reconnect and I knew I could protect her, no matter what.

Finally for a reason that wasn't obvious, Nessie stopped.

"Do you smell something you like?" I asked thinking that she was ready to hunt.

"Well, I do love the smell of leather." She smiled. Huh?

She went over to this strange looking snow covered mound, and bent over and lifted. I saw then that it wasn't a hill, but a thick blanket that she removed to expose a beautiful new model Rimini red metallic Range Rover.

She saw my gaping expression, so she said "Pretty huh? Want to drive?" I nodded my head without taking my eyes off the car. "So let's go then." She walked around to the passenger side and got in and waited. Finally, I snapped out of it and got in the car.

"God, this is awesome." I said as I ran my hands around the steering wheel.

"Ok, drive already. I'll tell you which way to go." She said while trying not to laugh at me.

We headed for the road, and set off for town. After following a few of her directions, I caught on to where we were going. We hadn't been back to the diner since that first time when we played twenty questions so I actually thought that she didn't like it, but she seemed genuinely excited to be going there again.

"You know those few days when you didn't come by?" She asked after we were seated at a table.

"Uh, you mean when I was giving you that space that I thought you needed?" I asked her.

"Yeah, well, we went to that diner in Forks with my grandpa and Sue, and I think diner food just might be my favorite now." She said with a wink.

"Your mom used to hate that place." I smiled back at her.

"Yeah I know, and I think she still does. You should have heard her complaining when Charlie ordered the steak and potatoes, you would have thought that he just ate poison or something, and then she scolded Sue for allowing him to eat that stuff."

"Typical Bella" I said "So when is your next trip to visit Charlie?"

"Probably Spring break, if we're still alive by then."

"Babe, you are going to be alive, I won't let anything happen to you, I swear." I tried reassuring her.

She got up off the bench she was sitting on in our booth, and came and sat next to me, leaning her weight onto me and clutching at my side. I wrapped my arm around her and kissed the top of her head and whispered "I love you".

She slid her hand under my shirt and just rested it on my bare chest. "Someday, someday we'll get married and when we do, I want to move back to Washington." She said quietly.

"You really liked it there didn't you?"

"It just fits. And I know it's your home and where you belong so…"

"I belong, wherever you are. If you still want to go to Europe after graduation, then that where we'll go."

"You would really leave your pack behind, to go trotting Europe with a bunch of vampires?" She asked surprised.

"Believe it or not, but I actually like your family. Trust me, liking the Cullens especially Edward Cullen in particular, is a stretch for me, but it actually feels good and almost natural in an unnatural sort of way. As far as my pack goes, hopefully they will be studying full time at a college somewhere and I'll stay linked with them and can come help if they need it, and that will be that."

"Or, we can get married right after graduation, and then we can move back to Washington together and open our own business." She smirked

"Really? And what kind of business will we open?"

"A car restoration shop, of course." She said excitedly.

"You know, I keep hearing about your love of restoring cars, but I have yet to actually see you in action."

"So do you want to go take the Range Rover somewhere and I'll take the whole thing apart, then put it back together again."

"Ok, '_take apart_' and '_Range Rover'_ do not belong in the same sentence; in fact it's a sin." I said jokingly but was perfectly serious.

She giggled and then the waitress brought us our food; we both ordered steak, rare.

When we were finished eating, I went to open the door for her, when a familiar face was walking into the diner. I grabbed Ness forcefully, and pulled her behind me while letting a low growl escape from deep in my chest.

Greg and I just glared at each other in an intense stand-off, right there in the door way of the diner. His eyes left mine momentarily to look behind me at a startled Ness, and another growl came out.

"This is not the time, nor the place." Greg said quietly gesturing towards all the human onlookers.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Why, because you don't have your buddies to back you up and give you your powers." I seethed at him.

"Strength in numbers, but you know that, otherwise you wouldn't run in packs." Greg said

"Nah, I could take you out right now, by myself."

"Well you already tried remember? And you failed. If that leech behind you wouldn't have surprised me, you both would be dead right now."

"Don't be bitter because you got your ass kicked by Ness; really, she's tough, I'm sure she can kick most people's asses. In fact _you_ would be dead right now if she didn't save you." I said cockily

"I would have rather died than have her disgusting saliva coursing through my system. But I bet you loved seeing your girl licking me, didn't you? Did it turn you on? I bet it turned her on. In fact, I bet you had hot love making after, and she probably was picturing me and my blood the whole time."

Ok, so I snapped, but could you really blame me?

I grabbed him by the shirt and dragged him outside then shoved him against the wall and pounded his face in. Greg wasn't strong alone, but he was strong enough to shock me like he did before, sending me crashing into the ground completely paralyzed. Nessie went to run to my side, but he caught her by the neck and pushed her against the same wall that I had him against, before sirens sounded behind us.

"Damn humans, always calling the police for every little scuffle." Greg said before releasing her. I was released from his power too and immediately stood up and pulled Nessie into me.

"This isn't over Wolfe" or wolf, still wasn't sure. "You're dead; and your little pet vampires too." With that, Greg ran off.

"Jake, let's go, we don't need to be arrested again." Ness whispered to me, so we took off too. We ran to the cover of the forest leaving the car in the parking lot, deciding we just needed to wait a bit before we went back for it. Nessie was right, being arrested wasn't something that we would be able to get out of as easily as the last time, so it was best to keep low for a while.

"Babe, come here, let me look at you." I said once we were far enough away.

"I'm fine Jake." She tried assuring me, but I looked her over anyway. There was a faint red mark where he had his hands around her throat, but she swore it didn't hurt.

"We should have your dad take a look anyway, just to be safe." My eyes lifted from her neck, up to her face expecting to see tears there, but instead she was smiling triumphantly.

"Why do you look so happy?" I asked her, allowing a smirk to come to my own face.

"Because I figured it out." She said proudly.

"Huh?"

"You had your hand resting on his shoulder while you hit him; that's how he was able to shock you. And I timed it. You had your hand on him for thirty seconds, and that's exactly how long the shock lasted for."

"So..?"

"So, next time you come across him, don't grab him like that. We have to figure out a way to get to him without physically holding on to him."

"Babe, you are brilliant." I told her.

"This whole thing is just so stupid. If I had just let him die after I ripped his throat out, none of this would be happening." She said getting down on herself.

"Honey, you are not like that. You have never killed anyone before, and taking someone's life isn't an easy thing to wrap your head around, even a sadistic freak like Greg."

"But really, what makes him so bad anyway? All he wants to do is kill vampires and the abominations that exist after a vampire impregnates a human. How is that any different than how you and the other wolves felt before?"

"Don't ever call yourself an abomination again." I told her sternly. "I was wrong before, just like he's wrong now. But that doesn't mean that we can just let him continue to try to kill you and your family, no matter his intentions. Kill or be killed; that's just the way that it goes."

"Jake, why do you think that you imprinted on me?" She asked quietly.

"I don't know. No one really knows the purpose of imprinting; I mean some of the elders have their theories but…"

"What are the theories?" She asked

I hesitated, but I refused to hold anything back from her again so I told her. "Some believe that not only is it about finding your soul mate, but also it produces the best and strongest next generation wolf…genetically."

Nessie looked shocked and confused. "You mean like, babies?"

"Yeah, Sam and Emily just had a baby, and apparently he's already a strong little guy, when he reaches maturity, he'll probably be massive."

"Carlisle doesn't know if I'll be able to…have babies. My body doesn't work like a normal human's." She said slowly.

"Like I said, it's just a theory. It really doesn't matter to me either way; if we have kids, great, if not, that's cool too, we'll just have more time to ourselves." I said with a meaningful smile.

"But you're alpha because of lineage, so that would be bad if your lineage stopped with you, right?"

"Babe, don't worry about it. If the elders are right and imprinting is meant to result in strong babies, then we'll have strong babies because I did imprint on you. I mean think about it really, I can't imagine a stronger kid then one coming from us." I said with a wink.

She smiled then reached up on her tip toes to kiss me. It was a sweet kiss that erupted into an explosion of hard passion. She reached under my shirt to trace my abdomen with her fingers, which was always her sign that she wanted to take it to the next level. And before everything happened resulting in me learning the truth, I would have been more than happy to oblige, but now…

"Babe, please?" She breathed in my ear.

I had almost lost her too many times, and to be holding her in my arms again, made it really difficult to think straight. I needed her; we needed each other. We needed our bodies to be connected just as strongly as our souls were, so I let go of everything else and just succumbed to my nature. A nature that had nothing to do with wolves vs. vampires, this nature was stronger, it was the nature of needing to give her everything and I got so much more in return.

After three rounds of giving in to that particular nature, the sky began to darken and that's when reality hit; the reality that doesn't give a crap about my nature.

"Babe, we have to get back, your mind reading father is really going to kill me."

"Yeah, but at least you'll die happy right?" She teased.

"It was definitely worth it." I smiled and kissed her again.

"Don't worry about my dad. We had a talk before they signed up to go to school with me, and he agreed to let me live my life the way I want to." She said casually.

"What does that mean?"

"He sort of found out that we were planning to run off and get married before, and that I was willing to never see them again if that's what it took to be with you…and let's just say it freaked him out."

"I bet he was pissed, in fact, I'm surprised I'm still alive now."

"No, he wasn't angry, just worried. He knows we're going to be together and the truth is, I think he's happy that I had no desire to be with Nahuel. He would never say it out loud, but I know that he never really liked him, and deep down he's always liked you. That is, when you weren't trying to steal my mom away from him." She smiled

My heart leaped out of my chest. "You know about that?"

"Yeah well, my mom was pretty pissed at you when they first got into Washington, she didn't actually tell me, but I overheard her and my dad talking about it."

"Babe…I…"

"Jake, I really don't care what happened before I was born, unless… did you, you know?"

"Ugh, no." I said repulsed by the idea of her mom and I going all the way. It's amazing just how much my desires have changed since being with Nessie. I did think about Bella in that way before, when I was a creepy teenager, but now the thought really disgusted me.

"Good, 'cause _that_ would have been bad." She smiled and started to get dressed, so I followed her lead and got dressed myself.

"So you really think your dad is going to be Ok with all of this?" I asked in disbelief.

"No, I didn't say he was going to be Ok with it, but he's not going to get into it with us either. He knows I'm capable of leaving the family and being on my own; I'm fully matured and there is nothing forcing me to stay with them, so the last thing he wants to do is push me away by getting in between us. He knows that you're not some guy out to just take advantage of me then take off, so he's going to let me be the adult that I am, and leave those decisions to me…but still try not to think about it around him, I really think he'd have a hard time actually getting a picture to go along with what he already knows that we've done."

"Believe me, the last thing I want to do is think about _that_ when he's around." I watched her as she pulled her pants over her hips. "But it's going to be really difficult"

She giggled. "I know what you mean."

We went back into town to pick up the car, and then drove back to its initial hiding spot and re-covered it. We ran back to the school but kept stopping to make-out, forcing our return trip to be a little bit longer than necessary, but we really didn't care. I walked her to her new room, which she was sharing with Bella, and kissed her one more time good night.

"My mom isn't in there." She smiled against my lips.

"How do you know? Where is she?" I asked concerned that maybe the witches got to her.

"She's probably with my dad, and I know that because the window is open and I can hear that she's not there."

"Well I certainly can't leave you here unprotected." I said while kissing her yet again.

"No you can't, that would be extremely reckless of you."

"Oh, what to do?" I said with a smile.

"How about you go off to bed, and I'll keep an eye on her tonight." Bella said as she came up behind me.

"Oh hey Bells" I greeted her feeling really guilty, but not caring at the same time.

"Hi mom." She kissed her on the cheek.

"Good night Jacob." Bella said in a teasingly scolding tone.

"Good night." I said to both of them letting my gaze linger on the most beautiful creature to ever exist.

Nessie smiled and bit her lip before mouthing _I love you. _I waited as she and Bella climbed through the second floor window, and I stayed there for a little while longer until Bells came and shut the window.

*******Please Review*******


	26. Unexpected

**Changing Tides**

Ch 26 – _Unexpected_

…..

"So what happened?" Seth asked eagerly when I got back to our room.

"What do you mean?"

"You weren't at hockey practice, and we ran into Zack and he said that his fearless leader Greg got one over on you." Embry said. Damn, I forgot about practice. Oh well, one of the coaches is Emmet, and I could care less about skipping out on him.

"Yeah, I have to admit, Greg had me down and his nasty clutches were on Ness, but it was in public and the cops came. I'm not too worried about it though, because I was the one who attacked him first. If I didn't punch him, he probably would have left us alone."

"So you and Nessie are back together then?" Seth asked.

"Yeah, it was just some stupid misunderstanding, but we're better than ever now." I said confidently.

"You might want to make sure that you wash yourself like with extra soap before going to school in the morning, because her scent is really strong on you and it may piss off a certain vampire." Embry suggested.

"I'll keep that in mind." I smiled at myself and climbed into bed. I wanted her scent to rub off of me and onto my sheets so I could sleep smelling her all night. I'd shower in the morning…maybe.

The next morning, I woke up early and decided to hop in the shower after all. When I was ready for the day, I walked past Nessie's room to see if she was still there, but she wasn't so I guess her and Bella got an early start. I went to Geography, but the hours just seemed to drag on and I knew that I still had a whole other class to suffer through until lunch time.

Geography finally ended, and it was on to English. I sat in my normal seat and started daydreaming about Ness, when I had to force myself to immediately cut off those particular thoughts, because Edward walked in and handed the teacher a slip. Great.

He narrowed his eyes at me, but didn't say anything and quietly took the last remaining seat, which was wonderfully (inserts sarcasm) right next to mine.

It was like when someone says 'don't think of the color blue', and you can't help but think of the color blue as a response. I had already been thinking about Ness before he got there, and it was like torture to not think of her now, in fact my brain actually hurt because of it.

So I tried to give myself mental pep talks. Ok Jake, think of something mundane like eggs; I had eggs in the cafeteria for breakfast. I wonder what came first, the chicken or the egg; my guess would be the egg because if the chicken came first, then there would have to be another chicken to mate with to produce the egg. How did chickens mate anyway? I can't imagine that they do it like people do, especially not the way Ness and I….CRAP.

I looked over at Edward, and he wasn't looking at me, but I could see that his jaw was clinched tightly.

Ok, new train of thought. I started thinking about cars; I passed by an old junker Ford Mach 1 Mustang in town the day before yesterday, and thought how great it would be to fix something like that up. I went over what I'd need in order to get it working properly, a new axel, new carburetor, and new paint. Ness and I could work on the car together; she would look so amazing in cover alls and even better without them…Damn it.

Edward accidentally broke the pencil he was writing with.

_Sorry_. – I thought to him, but it didn't really help. The more I tried not to think of Nessie, the more she came to my mind. Ugh, this was going to be a long several months until this school year was over.

I peeked over at Edward again, and he had his head bent over and was banging it against his desk trying to, no doubt, get my_ images_ out of his mind.

The class period couldn't have gone by slower, but to my relief, the end did eventually come. Edward collected his things quickly but instead of racing out like I expected him to, in order to escape my inappropriate mind, he actually waited for me.

"God, you take forever to get your crap." He said when I was finally ready to go to lunch.

"Well sorry if I'm not as agile as you are. These desks are freaking tiny and it takes me forever to just get myself out of them."

"You know, Emmet is pissed at you for missing practice last night." He smirked as we walked down the hall.

"Do you mind telling him that I said '_bite me_'?" I chuckled at my joke.

"I don't think you'd taste very good." Edward said casually. "I'm sure even Emmet would rather drink a bunny than sinking his fangs into you."

"I bet I'm delicious." I disagreed with him.

We walked over to the cafeteria and Bella and Ness were already in line to buy food, so Edward and I just cut in. I felt a little awkward greeting Ness with her parents there at first, because I really wanted to kiss her; but I soon realized that it wasn't an issue because the whole cafeteria could have burning down and they wouldn't have even noticed. Edward and Bella were lost in their own world, looking like they were trying to see who could swallow the other's tongue first.

"Ugh, get a room." Nessie said disgusted with her parents' PDA. But then she reached up and kissed me almost as intensely.

The lunch lady cleared her throat at the sight of the kissing teens holding up the line, so we broke away from each other and took our food to the table in the furthest corner of the cafeteria. Several minutes later, my pack came and joined us. I thought about our little group, and had to smile to myself at the thought of what we must have looked like to anyone informed about real monsters. Four wolf people, two vampires and a hybrid, what was the supernatural world coming to?

"So, how are you liking high school Bella?" Seth asked. "You know, you're my sister too, so if anyone messes with you, just let me know and I'll kick their ass."

"Uhh, well, thanks Seth. If any scary humans start to pick on me, you'll be the first to know." She said while shaking her head with a disbelieving smile. Leah rolled her eyes.

I watched as Edward and Bella played with their food and pushed it around their plates, and I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if they actually ate something. Edward smirked at me and picked up his fork and stabbed the pasta before putting it into his mouth, chewing and swallowing.

"EWW!" Nessie said loudly and Bella looked like she was going to puke. "Why would you do that?" Nessie asked him.

"What, Jake was curious." He defended his actions.

"What will it do to you?" Leah asked inquiringly.

"Nothing." Edward looked surprised that she would think otherwise.

"So why don't you eat then, if it doesn't hurt you?" Embry asked.

"Dirt wouldn't hurt you if you ate it, but that doesn't mean that you would want to." Edward explained.

"I'm not kissing you again until you wash your mouth out." Bella said with a disgusted tone.

"Oh come on Love, it's not that bad. Here, just have a taste." Edward picked up another fork full of pasta and lifted it to her mouth. She wrinkled her nose at it then pushed it away from her face.

"Edward, keep that foul smelling stuff away from me, or I'll rip your arm off." She warned him, but he just chuckled at her.

"So where are the rest of the Cullens right now?" Seth asked

"Jazz and Emmet agreed to be teachers, so that's two classes where Renesmee has protection, I have two classes with her and Bella has two with her as well, so she's never alone. Rose is actually working as a guidance councilor here, so she's close if we need her. Rose and Emmet are married and going by Emmet's human last name McCarty. Esme and Alice are working in town at a floral shop, and Carlisle's spending time at the local clinic and as the on call school doctor." Edward explained.

"So why are you two students? Wouldn't it have been easier to just all be teachers?" Leah asked

"It was hard enough Getting Em, Rose, and Jazz in here; two more teachers would have been next to impossible. We thought about us all coming back as students, but that would have been difficult as well; this was the best that we could come up with on such short notice. I'm Edward Mason, Vanessa Mason's cousin, Bella's last name is Dwyer; she's just a coincidental new student."

"Dwyer, as in Phil and Renee Dwyer?" I asked surprised she would pick that name.

"Well, I couldn't go by Swan because that can be traced back to my human high school experiences, and I couldn't go by Cullen, or Mason, so what is there left to go by?" Bella defended her choice.

"Ok, so why did you guys come back here in the first place, why not just relocate and start over somewhere far away?" Embry asked

"Those witches have location spells, so they could find us anywhere we went and they made it clear that they planned on finding us no matter what. So we figured, why hide? It's better to face this head on and be done with it, rather than always having to wonder if or when they are going to attack." Edward told us.

"I guess that makes sense." Embry said while nodding. "Well between all of us, we should be able to handle these twitches."

"Twitches?" Leah asked

"Yeah, teen witches." Embry said like it was obvious.

"You are such a girl." Leah joked.

"Yeah, well maybe you should take lessons." Embry teased back.

"Well, well, well, look what we have here." Greg and his posse stopped in front of our table. "What is this, the monster cast off table?" He started chuckling and it was Edward's turn to snap. Edward knew that Greg had grabbed Nessie by the neck, and he wasn't about to let him get away with it. It was a good thing that he was sitting so close to my pack, because it took Embry, Seth and Bella to hold him back from fighting Greg right there in the cafeteria.

"This isn't the place honey, too many witnesses." Bella whispered in his ear. And it was true; many people stopped eating to look over at the commotion that it caused to restrain Edward.

Edward relaxed, but his raging eyes stayed locked to Greg's. "Let's not keep putting this off, name a time and a place and we'll end it once and for all." Edward fumed.

"Oh come now, what would be the fun in that?" Greg answered him.

"Either we do this properly away from human bystanders, or I take you out in front of the whole school and worry about the repercussions later. You decide how you wish this to be over." Edward threatened him.

"We'll get back to you on that one." Greg smirked and then walked off. Edward's glare didn't leave Greg's back, and even lingered on the door that they exited through.

Bella got in Edward's face and put her hands on either of his cheeks, forcing him to look at her. She was whispering something so low that I couldn't even hear, but it seemed to calm him, then she kissed him quickly before pulling him back down to a seated position. We spent the rest of the lunch period discussing the witches' power and how to not get shocked, but Edward was quiet, stuck in his own anger; I actually knew exactly how he felt, but I had better control of myself.

Edward had his next class with Nessie, and I'd be lying if I said that his stability didn't worry me at all while being alone with her; what if he came across them again and we weren't there to stop him. If he attacked them alone, he'd get himself killed along with My Nessie.

"What?" Edward looked back at me full of anger in his eyes.

"What Edward, what's wrong?" Bella asked full of concern.

Edward just stared at me with an offended, angry look in his eyes. Nessie looked back and forth between us confused and worried, "Daddy?" she said quietly.

"You really have the nerve to be worried about me getting her hurt. Seriously?" Edward said to me.

"Yeah seriously. That was stupid, you getting all pissed at them like that, you are going to get someone hurt, and for both of our sakes, I just hope it's not Ness." I got angry back at him.

"Jake" Nessie said to me trying to get me to back down.

"Ok first of all, you are the one who got into it with him yesterday, when you two were completely alone. He had his hand around her neck, Jacob. She could have died right then, but here you are, getting all possessive and untrusting of _me_. I'm her father, and I have to just sit back and listen to all the crap that goes through your mind and still trust you with her, and you can't seem to give me even the smallest respect in return and actually trust me back. I've managed to keep her alive for eight years, this isn't the first time her life was threatened you know, but the minute you meet her, bam, all hell breaks loose."

"Oh, so this is all my fault?" I asked him in disbelief.

"No, it's not your fault," Edward said more quietly "but you have no idea what it's like to be a father and have your daughter threatened like that. And for some guy to come in and think that he's more responsible then you are to take care of the child that you created, it really sucks. You know, I hope you never feel that; I hope your children are safe and never have to worry about someone trying to kill them, but we live in the world of monsters and that's not likely to happen. So when the time comes that your child is threatened, you'll understand exactly where I'm coming from." Edward looked at Nessie and shook his head before walking away. Bella looked at me then back at Ness, before turning and following after Edward.

Ness, my pack, and I, just stood there quietly for a minute.

"Damn, that sucks." Embry said finally.

"Dude, probably now's not the time you want to be getting on Ed's bad side." Seth said to me.

I looked down at Nessie and she looked upset, but didn't run off after her parents like I expected her to.

"Nessie, I'm sorry, I really have no idea what that was about." I said honestly

"That was about my dad being very stressed out. Jake, I think you should just stay away from him for the rest of the day, just to let him cool off. He hates not being in control, and he hates it even more when I'm in danger." She said quietly but it was obvious she was worried about him.

"Do you want to go find him?" I asked her not wanting to make her take sides.

"I'll see him in class, but I should be going." She told me.

"It's still lunch break." I said.

Just then the bell rang.

"Ok, well let me walk you to class."

We walked holding hands, and I peered inside the room to make sure Edward was there before heading to my own class. I felt really bad for getting into it with Edward, but no matter how hard I try not to, every once in a while I still saw him as the vampire that was going to get someone I cared for hurt, or dead. Old habits die hard, and old emotions die even harder. But the truth is that I do trust Edward, in fact I trust him more than Sam, and my level of trust in him is right up there with my own pack; it's just hard to trust anyone with Nessie.

I figured I needed to apologize to Edward, so I snuck out of class early and got back to his and Nessie's class before the period ended; I had hockey practice that I couldn't miss right after school, so this couldn't wait.

"Hey Jake." Nessie greeted me happily.

I kissed her quickly before turning to Edward.

"Hey, I'm really sorry about earlier" I told him sincerely

"Yeah, me too. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that." Edward said, but I could tell he was still pissed at me; I guess I should just listen to Ness and give him some space.

Nessie was going to sneak off campus with her parents for the afternoon, and go to the house Carlisle bought near town, while my pack and I went to practice.

"Well look who finally decided to grace us with his presence." Emmet announced as I came onto the ice struggling with my balance at first, but finding my center after a few moments.

"Suck it." I said under my breath, but I knew he could hear me.

"Hey man, glad Eddie didn't kill you." Seth joked

"If he was going to kill me, he would have done it long before now." I responded.

"Don't bet on it." Emmet said menacingly as he skated by. "Ok, drills lines. Come on ladies I want to see some real speed." He hollered at all of us.

Embry and I were doing opposite drills, when we both lost control and collided into each other; damn I hated ice skates.

"Ahh, are you girls men, or animals? I don't want to see a bunch of dogs out here, I want to see warriors." Emmet yelled at us. God, I really wanted to kick his ass.

Another couple of days went by, and there hadn't been another instance with any of the witches, in fact, none of us had even seen any of them since the cafeteria confrontation. Things hadn't really gotten better between Edward and me, but they didn't get worse either. We would speak casually to each other, but I think he was having a hard time knowing that his little girl wasn't so little anymore and she didn't need him like she used to.

We were all on high guard still, waiting for any signs of the witches to attack us, but there was nothing. The beginning of the following week however, brought a change that none of us saw coming. It was late and we had all turned in for the night, when there was a loud banging on the door.

"What the hell?" Embry asked as he flipped on the light. "Seth, go see who it is."

"No, screw you; you go see who it is. Ass." Seth said refusing to get out of bed.

"I'll get it, morons." I said as I hurried to the door. I really didn't think it was anything to do with Ness, because if it did, then whoever it was would have just broken the lock and come in.

I opened the door, and both Seth and Embry flashed to my side in an instant, ready to phase at a moment's notice. "Oh wow, I never would have thought you would have the guts to just show up like this." I said to Greg, who was alone.

"Jacob, I didn't come here for a fight and I know you have no reason to trust me, or ever believe me, but I need your help; in fact, I'm begging for your help." Greg said desperately.

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	27. An Uneasy Alliance

**Changing Tides**

A/N : _I just wanted to thank everyone for reviewing, especially _thamker_ and _polly2010___who seemed to have a catch-up reading marathon and reviewed each chapter as they went. That was awesome of you. Everyone please keep reviewing, even if it's negative or just a word or two._ _This has been the most amount of reviews I have ever gotten on a story and I really appreciate it._

Ch 27 – _An Uneasy Alliance_

…

I couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculous notion of helping that witching freak, in fact….

I grabbed his shirt, careful not to touch his skin so I could avoid being shocked, and pulled him in the room. I had every intention on killing him right then and there, but there was something about his desperate pleas and the fact that he actually started crying, that stopped me from taking him out permanently.

"Speak quickly." I said.

"I'm sorry about what happened with your…girlfriend. I just don't understand how you could actually be attracted to that…hybrid."

"You aren't gaining any points here." I said getting annoyed.

"I just didn't understand why there have been so many vampires here lately. It worried me at first, but it seems as though none of them are killing anyone, why is that?" He asked.

"Uhh, I thought the whole point to you coming here tonight was to ask us to help you with something, so why the hell are you asking questions about the vampires?"

"I'm getting there."

"Well, get there faster." I warned him

"The vampires here, they're the creators of the hybrid, is that correct?" I nodded so he continued. "And you trust them?" I nodded again. "Look, a very powerful vampire coven came and kidnapped my parents, along with my aunts and uncles. My cousins and I have been trying to figure out a way to get them back, but the only thing we could think of is an all out battle, and we are going to need as much help as we can get."

"Look, the vampires here had nothing to do with any kidnapping of any witches, so you can just mosey along and go look elsewhere." I told him.

"No, I never thought that they did. But they are one of the largest covens I've come across, and was hoping that since you're friends with them, you might be able to talk them into meeting with me. We need any information we can get on the coven that took my family, and we're pretty sure that they might know something that can help; I mean, the vampire world isn't that big, most of them know of such large covens, right?"

"Ok, so you are actually here to ask us" I pointed at my pack "to ask the vampires, to help you? That's hilarious; there is no way any of them would ever help you. That's the coven than Nessie came from and there is no way that they are going to _not _kill you guys. You trapped her in a hatch, tried to kill her more than once, threatened all of them, and you had your hand around her neck. Sorry about your family man, but if I was you, I'd leave town now and never come back; in fact you're lucky that I haven't killed you yet. You have no idea what Nessie means to me, and it's a miracle that I've allowed you to remain breathing this long."

"I've apologized for attacking her, and that might never be enough, but I swear it won't happen again. I didn't trust that the humans here were safe around her, but I realize my mistake now. Please, this coven that has my family is very strong and only grows stronger with every passing day. We aren't exactly sure what they want with them, but we believe that they are planning to use them to attack an even larger coven to gain supernatural world domination."

"So what you're saying is, that this vamp coven kidnapped your family so they could use their witch magic to fight against a bigger coven, and you need help defeating them before that happens? Why would we care if a couple vamp covens fight against each other? It doesn't make any difference to us which vamp coven rules their vamp world."

"If we're right and they succeed in this, it will affect us all and even worse, it will leak out into the human world and we will all be exposed and many innocent lives will be over as a result. This particular coven has no regard for concealing the super natural from the humans, the only thing stopping them now, is the larger coven that they are trying to over through."

"Jake, this sounds heavy, maybe we should call Edward…on second thought, maybe we should contact Carlisle first." Seth said quietly. "I mean, if this is really about the vamp world, then I'm sure they'd want to know."

"How do we know that you're not lying about all of this?" I asked Greg.

"I came here alone, and unprotected by the other witches here. I know you three can kill me right now, but I came anyway because I'm desperate. Please, just get me in to talk with one of the vamps; what's the worst that can happen, they kill me? That's just a win for you."

"I think Carlisle is the most level headed one, we should call him." Embry suggested.

"Fine. But I really hope they decide that this is all bull, and they kill him instead." I told Embry but was glaring at Greg.

Seth called Carlisle, and he suggested that we bring Greg to their house to speak with him in person. So we did. When we arrived at the house, Edward was there waiting in the doorway, his face plastered in a hard mask. It was obvious that he wanted nothing more than to just snap his neck, actually I almost expected it, but he didn't. Instead he moved to the side to let us in, he must have read his mind and knew he was telling us the truth, but he stayed close just in case.

All of the Cullens were in the living room, along with Nessie, so I walked over to her and wrapped my arm around her. I actually did believe Greg's story, but I still didn't trust him and I hated having Nessie in the same room as him. Greg looked around the room at the eight vampires, and I could actually see the fear in his eyes.

"So this is the witch that's been giving us so much trouble?" Carlisle said

"This is Greg, but he's not too powerful alone, just don't touch him though, he's like an electric eel." I warned him.

"Well Greg, please say what it is that you came here to say." Carlisle encouraged.

"Your eyes, they're gold. I never saw vampires with golden eyes before." Greg said uneasy

"Yes, well that is because my family and I are vegetarians, we only feed on animals." Carlisle explained.

Greg looked shocked "What, like good vampires? I never heard of such a thing." He looked over at me and Ness and shook his head in disbelief.

"So, Seth explained briefly about the predicament you are in over the phone, why don't you elaborate for me now. The vampires that have your family, what do you know about them." Carlisle asked.

"Uhh, I don't really know much about them except for what my mother was able to send me in my dream."

"Wait a minute, you dreamed this whole thing?" Emmet asked in a mocking tone.

"Yes, we can communicate that way." Greg answered him. "But sometimes the dreams aren't very clear, so they are hard to translate."

"So this whole thing could just be a misinterpret of a bad dream?" I asked.

"Wow, pup, I never thought you knew how to use words like misinterpret." Emmet teased.

"I didn't misinterpret anything. The vamp coven is trying to use my family to take down the leaders and rise to power themselves." Greg insisted.

"Ok, so this vampire coven is trying to over through the Volturi, but who would be strong enough and smart enough to do that?" Carlisle asked himself.

"It's the Romanians." Edward said suddenly.

"What makes you think that? Vladimir and Stefan have been quiet for centuries, why would they try to rise up now?" Carlisle asked.

"I'm not sure, but it's definitely them; Greg's mother sent a vision of the two leaders in the dream." Edward said certain.

"How did you know that?" Greg looked confused.

"Because I can read minds, and you just thought about it, so I know that you're telling the truth; it's the only reason why you're still alive right now." Edward sounded menacing. "Trust me, I'd love nothing more than to kill you for what you have done to my daughter, but this threat is a little bit greater than a bunch of adolescent witches."

"Wait, the hybrid is your daughter? Wow, she looks older than you." Greg said surprised. Edward glared at him but gave no other response.

"Ok, so if the vision is accurate, then we're dealing with the Romanians trying to bring down the Volturi." Carlisle said.

"What difference does it make who is in charge of the vamp world?" Leah asked

"Because, the Romanians used to be in power before the Volturi, and when they were monsters weren't myth, they were fact and humans lived in fear every second of their lives. If they bring down the Volturi, then this world will belong to the vampires again." Carlisle explained.

"Ok, so let's kill the Romanians." Emmet said casually.

"That's easier said than done Emmet. They are some of the oldest known vampires and they didn't become the leaders by chance. This is going to take meticulous planning in order to even stand a chance against them." Carlisle said.

"So, you'll help us then?" Greg asked surprised and hopeful.

"It's not about helping _you_; it's about stopping the Romanians." Edward seethed. "But if you so much as think an inappropriate thought towards any of us, especially my daughter, I'll kill you before you even finish the thought."

"Of course" Greg said understandingly.

Carlisle, Jasper, Emmet and Edward sat down with Greg to go over every last detail that he knew, my pack listened in. Bella, Nessie and Rose went upstairs, I wasn't really sure why, Esme was in the kitchen and I was about to sit with the rest of the guys and Leah, when Alice pulled me into the other room.

Her face looked stern and thoughtful. "Ok, Jacob, what are your plans for Nessie?" She asked me.

"Nessie?" I had to smile at the fact that most of the Cullen's had started to call her my nick name.

"I'm serious Jake, this is important." She said forcefully

"Ok, sorry. What do you mean _my plans_?"

"For prom, of course." She said like she was annoyed that I didn't understand her right away.

"Oh, well we haven't talked about it, in fact it hasn't even come across my mind." I said sheepishly and braced myself because I knew she was about to lay into me for that one.

"Jacob Black." She scolded me "I am ashamed of you. I thought you loved her?"

"I do, more than anything" I said offended.

"Well, that's no way to show it. I know you missed homecoming, and the fact that you aren't planning ahead for the biggest dance of the year, is completely ridiculous."

"Alice, prom is in May, this is only January; I think I have time to get everything set up. Besides, we've been a little preoccupied, you know with the whole witch problem and what not."

"That is no excuse." She said angrily.

"Ok look, Ness and I bought outfits for the homecoming dance, and we never wore them, so we'll just wear them…" Alice's face was looking more and more horrified as I talked about using the clothes we already had, so I stopped talking.

"You know what, Rose and I are going shopping for Jazz and Emmet's suits, so we'll just pick you up something then."

"Jasper and Emmet aren't students, why are they going?" I asked confused.

"Hello, chaperones. We would never miss out on a chance to dance."

"Uhh, Ok, thanks for picking something up for me…I think."

"Don't worry about it, we have to get Edward's suit too, and Bella's dress; that girl still has no idea the proper way to dress herself. Thank God Nessie has Rose and me to show her the way life should be." And with that, Alice danced upstairs. I think my brain actually hurt from talking to her, I knew for sure that my ears were ringing, but I actually liked Alice and she was definitely better that Rose.

I went back into the living room to try and catch up what I missed with the Romanian talk, but then Nessie came downstairs quickly and grabbed my arm before dragging me out side, never saying a word until we were away from her family.

"Will you take me hunting?" She asked with a smile.

"It's the middle of the night, you're really thirsty right now?" I asked in disbelief.

"Maybe, or maybe I'm just hungry." She said while reaching up on her toes to kiss me overpoweringly.

"Renesmee Cullen, you're really going to be the death of me, do you know that?" I said before kissing her again.

She stared at me for a moment, then smiled. "That's the first time you ever called me by my real name."

"Well that sucks of me. That's your name, it's who you are and I should call you that more often."

"But not too often; I like Nessie, because you made it up for me." She pressed her lips against mine, then I let her drag me off into the night.

We stayed intertwined together in the forest until the sun came up, and I was actually surprised no one came looking for us.

"Are you worried about the Romanians?" She asked me as we walked back to the school campus.

"Well, at least I know how to fight vampires; witches are a new opponent for me. I just hate the idea of you being in even more danger than you already are." I told her.

"Me? At least this is one fight that has nothing to do with me." She said happily, but then got more serious. "Do you think that Greg and his friends are really no longer a threat to us?"

"God I hope so. I mean don't get me wrong, I would have no problem killing them if that's what it came down to, but the truth is that they are just misguided teens that are stuck behind their prejudices, and I know exactly how that feels. Hell, I was them before I was enlightened by your amazing ways." I said while tracing her hips with my hands, and kissing her shoulder from behind. She turned around to face me, then pulled herself up forcing me to hold her while she wrapped her legs around my waist.

"We don't have to get back so soon you know, classes aren't for another three hours." She kissed my neck.

"I guess we could delay our return a little longer." I said while still holding her. I walked forward a few steps until her back was pushed against a tree, and we blissfully '_delayed our return'_.

By the time we finally made it back to school, we were running too late to shower and get cleaned up, so we went straight to Spanish class. Perfect, I bet Jasper will be able to smell us and know exactly what we did all night.

"Hey Jake, I would ask what you did last night after leaving the Cullens, but I'm pretty sure I have a good idea." Embry said as we took our seats. I pushed our table as far forward as possible so I was close enough to Ness that I could play with her hair, and that's what I did through the whole class. Jasper gave me the evil eye, but then he ignored me and continued with his lesson plan, which I didn't pay attention to. We had another test, but I didn't even bother trying, Jasper always gave me a hundred percent anyway, so what's the point.

"You know Jake, you really should at least try on these tests, Jasper's not always going to be there to fix your grade for you." Nessie said as we collected our things after the class period was over.

"Pero te gusta mi español" (But you love my Spanish) I told her teasingly.

"Just because you memorize a few sentences, doesn't mean you'll be able to pass a real test, and if you want to get into college, you'll need to pass real unbiased tests." She scolded me.

"Hey, who said anything about college, I thought my options were Europe or married life with a car restoration business in Washington?" I asked with a smile.

"You're the one who said we have forever and there's no need to rush into anything. So I've been thinking that maybe we should go to college first, and then move to Washington."

"Are you sure about that?" I asked her

"No, but that's what I think right now. So why don't you stop screwing around and learn something so you'll get a decent SAT score so we can leave our options open." She said quickly.

All the other students already left the class to head for lunch, so all that was left was Ness, Embry, Jasper and I so I decided now would be a good time to ask Jasper a few questions.

"So what happened last night after we left?"

"Jacob, I really don't want to know what happened last night." He said while looking between Ness and me.

"Not between us" I said annoyed. "With Greg?"

"Well, he stayed the night at the house, that way if his mother sends him any more messages through his dreams, Edward could hear them as well. But he didn't dream, so he'll be sleeping at the house until he does. His friends, or cousins, I'm not really sure what the other's are to him; they came by too, and are planning to sleep over for a while as well. None of them are in school today, and neither is Edward or Bella, so you won't see them at lunch. They're still discussing things, and Emmet and I were planning on staying there too, but Carlisle thought it would be best for us to come to campus just in case you guys needed extra protection for whatever reason."

"Huh" I snuffed. I was about to protest the idea of us needing Jasper and Emmet as extra protection, but then I stopped myself. There wasn't enough protection in the world for Nessie, and I would take as much as I could possibly get for her. "So, what do you think, do you trust the guy?" I asked Jasper's opinion on Greg.

"No. But that's why we're keeping close tabs on him. He's not lying as far as his mind goes, Edward is constantly listening in, but the problem is that we don't know what witches are capable. Maybe they have a spell that allows them to lie with their thoughts or something."

"So should we go to the house after school?" Nessie asked him

"No, there's no sense in you guys hanging out there. Just leave your cells on and we can call you if something comes up. Go out, have fun…but not too much fun. By the way, Emmet is canceling practice this afternoon" Jasper said

"Yes" Embry and I said at the same time.

"So night off, what are we doing?" Embry asked as we walked to the cafeteria to meet Leah and Seth.

"I don't know what _you're_ doing, but _I'm _taking my girlfriend out for the night…alone." I told him

"Awe, ok, I see how it is." Embry said faking that he was offended.

"So where are _we_ going then?" Nessie asked as she clung to my side.

"Let's do something really high-schoolish, like dinner, mini golf, and a movie." I suggested.

"Alright, sounds fun. But if we're going to do all those high school things, then we need to do what high school kids do best afterwards." She said

"And what's that?"

"Fornicate." She said flatly, and I couldn't help but crack up.

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	28. Crash

**Changing Tides**

Ch 28- _Crash_

…

"Are you sure you want to do this?" She asked me

"Hell yes." I replied.

"Ok, but I'm going to whoop your ass."

"Yeah right, I bet you crash into the wall"

"We'll see."

The light turned from red to green, and we were off. Maybe it was childish of us to be racing go-carts, but after she beat me in two rounds of mini golf, I was feeling a little emasculated and I needed to beat her at something. Though once I actually squeezed myself into the little cart, I realized that maybe this wasn't the best idea.

I had her beat in the first lap, but I got a cramp in my leg from being so crunched up, that I lost focus for a split second and she zoomed past me. Ok, it was time to stop playing around, this was serious, there was no way she could beat me at this too, I had to win otherwise I'd never hear the end of it. I was right on her bumper, but the damn cart wouldn't go any faster, in fact it seemed to lose power probably due to my weight; yeah that's it, my weight made it impossible for me to win.

Her smug expression turned into full out laughter as I had trouble getting out of the cart when the race was over.

"That wasn't fair; I'm too big and heavy for those things." I complained.

"Well it was your idea, and I did warn you." She smiled, and I swear everyone around us stopped for a moment just to stare at her. She was so mesmerizing, like she was a light and the rest of us were moths.

"Hey baby, want go another round?" Some guy walked up behind her and asked.

"Uh, no." Nessie said annoyed with the human who was obviously about to hit on her.

"Oh come on sweet heart, I bet I can show you a far better time than you're having at the moment."

"Hey man, get lost." I told him calmly.

He ignored me and kept advancing on my girl. "Damn you're hot. Why are you with Goliath, when you can be with David?" He said then whispered to her "David wins you know." He grabbed her hand, and she surprised me by not pulling away, in fact she actually looked like she was enjoying the contact.

She leaned into him and said quietly. "Oh, but he's not Goliath." She said seductively "You are." She gestured to his man parts, and he looked pretty smug.

"Damn right I am." He said. What the hell?

"And that would make me David" She said before twisting the hand he was holding her with so hard, that he fell to the ground and cried out in pain. "Oh look you're right, David wins every time." She said cockily, then grabbed my hand and led me away from the human nuisances.

"Did I ever tell you how sexy you are when you take people down?" I said to her

"Yes, but you can keep telling me if you'd like." She reached up and kissed me.

"God, I love you." I couldn't believe how much my life has changed over the years; I really just wish my father was still alive to see what he did for me by asking me to go back to school. Maybe somehow he did know, maybe this was his plan all along.

"I love you too." She kissed me again. This was what life was supposed to be, two people loving each other and no one else; balanced. I guess it sucks that it took me so long to realize that, but in truth, it was impossible to feel this sooner than I did, because _she_ didn't exist yet and there was no such thing as true love before her.

"So, we did dinner, and the mini golf thing, do you want to hit up the movies now?" I asked her.

"Is there anything sweet and romantic playing?" She asked

I pulled out my phone and looked on the internet to see what was playing. "Uhh, 'Punch Face 6', 'Saw 15', 'Teddy Bear Adventure', oh here, 'A Morning of Tears'. Do you want to see that?" I asked her.

"No way, I hate those sappy love stories; let's see one of those gory ones." She said with a smile.

"Why did you ask about the romantic movies then?"

"I just wanted to know what _not _to go see." Yep, that's just one more reason why I love her.

We didn't really watch the movie, we spent most of the time kissing; but hey, it's a little hard not to when were sitting in a dark room for so long. After the movie, we were planning on going somewhere to commit fornication like Nessie requested, but my cell went off and it was Seth saying that we needed to meet back at the Cullen house. Damn it, I guess we should have done Nessie's wish earlier in the evening.

We got to the Cullen house, and my pack was there too, so we figured something must have happened.

"Hey, what's going on?" I asked Edward as he came to meet us in the living room.

He kissed Nessie on the top of the head, and then answered me. "Greg got a message from his mother in his dream."

"Really, so what was it?"

"The Romanians, they want more witches; they'll be coming here to try and capture Greg and his coven. As far as I could tell from the dream, the Romanians aren't aware that we're here so they aren't planning on this turning into a battle, so that will work to our advantage." Edward explained.

My thoughts immediately drifted to Nessie; she was tough, but there was no way that I wanted her anywhere close by when this all goes down.

"Bella called Charlie, and we'll be sending Renesmee back to Washington before the battle starts." Edward answered my thoughts.

"No Daddy; I want to be here, I can help, I know I can." She protested.

"Sweet heart, you know we can't let that happen. You being here will just be a distraction for all of us, and we can't afford to be distracted." This was one of the instances where Edward's over-protectiveness was a good thing.

"This whole thing is stupid, why don't you just contact Aro, and tell him what's going on so he can handle this himself." Nessie said.

"We already did that. Aro knows but he decided it would be best to stand their ground in Volterra instead of initiating a fight here."

"So in other words, Aro is hoping that we fight and lose some of our numbers, before they join in." I stated remembering the Volturi's stance when the newborns attacked.

"Exactly" Edward said.

"Wonderful." I sighed. "Well, I'm going to contact Sam and see if he'll send us any of his pack."

"That's a good idea, thanks Jake." Edward said. "Jasper and Carlisle are looking for any of their friends willing to help as well."

I called Sam and let him know what was going on, and it definitely worried him. He understood the danger that this fight could bring to the whole world if we lost, so he decided he wanted to come himself.

The next day, Sam arrived with Paul, Jared, Collin, Brady, Quill, and Tommy. I didn't really know Collin, Brady and Tommy very well, but the more the better I guess. Between both packs, there were seventeen wolves currently, and with eleven joining in on the fight, that only left six back in LaPush to protect the people and My Nessie, which worried me, but was still our best option.

"So when is this all going down?" Sam asked Carlisle.

"Well the dream wasn't clear, but we know it will be soon. We're hoping Greg's mother can send another one before the actual attack occurs." Carlisle explained.

"Shouldn't we go to a more obscure location to draw them away from the humans here?" Sam asked

"Unfortunately, we really can't. The Romanians don't know that Greg's mother is sending him messages, so if we aren't here, then things could get a whole lot worse."

"So where are we going to fight then? If we fight out in the open, the humans will see and isn't the whole point to us fighting the Romanians is to keep humans ignorant?" Sam asked

"Well, they will be attacking the school because that's where they think the witches are. The forest that surrounds the school is unpopulated, so hopefully we can draw the fight out there." Carlisle planned.

"Ok, so how do we avoid them attacking the school all together?" Sam was starting to get frustrated with the lack of a better plan.

"Babe, it's time to go." I whispered to Nessie. I was going to fly with her, then escort her to LaPush before flying back to help in the fight.

"Ok." Ness went to kiss her family good bye and the tears that rolled down her face just about broke my heart. I knew she was worried about her family, but she understood why she couldn't stay as well.

"Jake, I was thinking." Edward said as we were about to leave. "Maybe it would be better if someone from your pack was back in LaPush, just so we can stay connected there because Sam's pack isn't connected to you. I'll still be able to hear what's going on back there through Sam, but you might be more comfortable if you're connected to her as well."

"Yeah, that's a good idea." I got my pack together to see who would be most willing to miss the fight. My first thought was to send Quill back, so he can protect both of our imprints, but he was the second fastest of us behind Leah, and we could really use him here.

"I'll go." Leah offered. That surprised me; Leah never opted out of a fight, so I knew she wasn't doing it out of her own fear.

"You can't Lee." Seth said "Whoever goes has to take Jake's plane ticket, so they'll have to use his ID too. Don't get me wrong, you are pretty masculine, but I don't think they'll buy you as Jacob Wolfe."

Leah punched Seth's arm for calling her masculine. "Ok, so who's going to go?" Leah asked.

"I'll go." Seth offered. "I don't love ripping up vamps as much as the rest of you do."

"Sounds good, thanks Seth." I said and Leah smiled. Apparently this was what she was hoping would happen if she volunteered; as tough of an exterior that she had, she was still just a protective big sister inside.

"Wait, so you're not coming with me back to LaPush at all?" Nessie seemed upset.

"This is better anyway; if I go back with you then there is a chance I'd miss the fight." I told her.

"I know." She said, and apparently that was her plan all along. Women; always with their ulterior motives, jeesh.

"Babe, I have to fight. I'm one of the strongest wolves and I'm needed here." I told her sympathetically. I knew she was worried at the fact that her whole family and I, are all going to be here risking our lives, but I just hoped she understood.

"I know, but I just can't stand the idea of being so far from you." She started crying again.

I wrapped my arms around her. "I know honey; I don't want to be away from you either. Ok here's what's going to happen, we're going to kick some Romanian asses, then we're going to go to the 'all important' prom, I'm going to get an awesome score on my SAT, we'll graduate, then we'll get married and move into an apartment by the college that you decide we should go to. We'll stay there for four years, and then we'll move back to Washington and open a car restoration business. Ok?" I said to her. She looked up at me and smiled, then kissed me passionately.

"Promise me." She demanded.

"Prometo, mi amor" (I promise, my love) I told her. "Allí no es una fuerza en este mundo que me podría impedir volviendo a usted" (There isn't a force in this world that could keep me from coming back to you.)

"Ok Romeo, it's time." Edward said and patted me on the back before pulling Nessie in his arms and she kissed him on his cheek.

"I love you daddy." She said with tears rolling down her cheeks.

"I love you too."

Bella was last to say goodbye to Ness and they held each other tightly before Bella whispered something about her little nudger, whatever that means. I was going to drive Seth and Nessie to the air port, so I'd say my goodbye there; it was better done away from her parents anyway.

I made Seth drive, so Ness and I could sit in the back seat and kiss the whole way, and because I wasn't paying attention to the road, I didn't see it happen. One minute my lips were on hers, the next minute the tires made a loud screeching noise and started spinning before the whole car flipped in the air and rolled down an embankment.

We must have hit hard, because it would have taken an extremely powerful blow to knock me out. I had no idea how long I was unconscious for, but when I woke the first thing I did was reach over to check on Nessie. I could feel her hand, but with all the twisted metal of the car, it was hard to see her face.

"Ness!" I yelled for her, but there was no answer. I squeezed her hand and tried to shake it to wake her, but she was completely limp. I started to panic.

If I had been a normal human, there is no way I would have been able to get out of the car, because I was completely pinned, but I wasn't a normal human. I used my whole supernatural strength the pry the mangled steel frame away, so I could break free. I had minor lacerations, but nothing serious, so I was able to easily run to Nessie's side and pull her out as well. She too had cuts on her face and arms, and I realized that was the first time I ever smelled her exposed blood and there was a definite vampire smell to it. I guess that with her thick skin, the smell was never strong enough to seep through, so I wasn't able to smell it before. I lifted her out of the car and cradled her into me while crying out her name.

She didn't stir so my fears started overtaking me. Edward had said that if she was ever in an accident that it wouldn't hurt her anyway, so why wasn't she waking? I could smell the gas, and I knew that there were sparks from the wreckage, so I reluctantly laid Ness at a safe distance away and went back for Seth.

Seth was also unconscious, and he was buried deeper within the car. It was like the whole front of the car wrapped around him, as if he drove at top speed into a fifteen feet deep solid wall. What the Hell happened?

I pulled at the car pieces ferociously but carefully, knowing it could explode at any moment, and finally I got to Seth and was able to free him. The guy was heavy, so I had to drag him from the danger, and I laid him on the side of the road. I could see his breath, so I knew he was going to be Ok and his cuts were already healing; I just didn't understand how any of us could have cuts in the first place.

"Damn it, we didn't know there was going to be two wolves, no wonder they're not dead, we didn't make a big enough spell for two." I heard a voice say from the other side of the wreck. I looked up quickly and saw a white van parked by where I left Nessie. I scrambled as fast as possible towards them, when the wreaked car exploded. I ran around the inferno, but I wasn't fast enough; they loaded Ness into the van and sped away. I screamed after them and tried to phase, but for a reason I didn't understand, I couldn't. It was like the connection between my human form and my wolf, was broken and phasing was impossible.

"NO!" I screamed after them, but there wasn't anything I could do. I chased after the van in my human form, but it was like with every step I took, I became weaker and weaker until my speed and strength was no greater than that of a normal human's. I fell to my knees and panted for air, feeling completely weak, and the pain from the accident coming to me strongly, I was more injured than I previously thought.

I could feel the darkness taking over; in fact I was fighting it with every last ounce of energy that I had left inside of me, but it was too strong and the last thing I thought of before I blacked out, was My Nessie.

*******Please Review*******


	29. Helpless

**Changing Tides**

A/N: Ok so this chapter is a little heavy, I tend to get carried away when it comes to this stuff, so let me know in the reviews if it's confusing or not.

Ch 29 – _Helpless _

…..

I woke up in a lot of pain and feeling as if my body was hit by a wrecking ball, but worse than the pain was the confusion. I was in a white room with the sun shining brightly through a large window, which was dressed with lace curtains. The smell in the room was overpowering and gave me an even bigger headache than I already had, and burned my nose. It was like a mix between chlorine and the most nauseatingly sweet stench that I could ever imagine smelling, it was a familiar scent, but I couldn't place it. I had no idea where I was or how I got there, in fact I couldn't even remember who I was but I had an overwhelming need to find something, I just wish I knew what that something was.

"Just relax; the confusion will wear off soon." A familiar voice said. "You had a witching spell put on you, but you'll be fine. Seth is still unconscious, but he had a larger concentration of the spell thrust upon him so he's going to take a bit longer to come around." I could almost place the voice; it was so close to coming to me. It pissed me off at first, like I hated this particular voice more than any other in the world, but then I realized that it wasn't hate, maybe jealousy, resentment, but not hate. But the more lucid I became, the more I didn't hate this person speaking to me. It was the darkness, the cloud of uncertainty that caused me to hate him, but in reality, there wasn't another person in the world who I'd rather have in that room with me, because he was the only one who could truly understand me. This voice and I have been through hell _because_ of each other and _alongside_ each other; we loved the same people but loved them completely differently, but would go to hell and back for them just the same. And he was the one person in this world that had the same amount of love in his soul and hate in his heart as I did, and he was the only one that I count on to do whatever it takes to bring the sun back to the universe.

"Edward?" I croaked as things started coming back together in my mind. The crash, Nessie limp, Dragging Seth, the explosion, and the white van speeding away with my whole world inside. "No, I have to find…" I tried getting up, but a pair of very cold hands pushed me back down.

"You're not ready to get up yet, just give it a couple more minutes." Edward told me, and then a second vampire breezed into the room.

"How is he doing?" Carlisle asked

"He's still a little confused but he's almost there." Edward answered him.

"He has no idea what happened?" Carlisle guessed

"No more than what he's been dreaming over and over again. All we have to go on is what Greg told us, but I'm still not sure how reliable that is, he just doesn't know enough."

With the mention of Greg's name, I was immediately boiled over with anger and such a strong emotion brought me out of the remaining fog that I was in. Everything was now clear, the people that took Ness said something about a spell which meant that they were witches, which meant that Greg double crossed us and I was going to kill him, torture him in fact, until he feels an ounce of the pain I felt from helplessly watching Nessie being taken away. I got up and leaped out of the bed I was in, before running for the stairs.

I had never been in this part of the Massachusetts Cullen house, but that wasn't going to stop me from finding the bastard responsible for taking Ness from me. I sensed the two vampires following me, but neither tried to stop me either. I tried to run through the house faster, but my legs still felt weak like as if I was nothing more than human.

The bottom floor of the house was crowded, many vampires and even more wolves, but the only monster I cared about was the witch that I now zeroed in on.

"Jake." Bella stepped in my line of site of the witch whose life I was about to end.

"Step aside Bella, I mean it." I seethed.

"Jacob, you don't know the whole story." Sam tried sounding forceful with authority, but he was no boss of mine, so I kept advancing.

I grabbed Greg by the shirt and hit him as hard as I could, with a loud crunch from the sound of breaking bones as my fist met his face.

"Damn it!" I screamed as I clutched my shattered hand.

"I'm sorry Jacob; I didn't mean to hurt you." Greg said with a face that looked unscathed by my blow.

The pain in my hand was consumed by my enraged hatred. "Why the hell is he still alive?" I yelled at everyone in the room.

"He didn't take Renesmee" Edward said trying to break through my fury.

"How stupid are you people? Of course he took her, they were witches, he's a witch. What more evidence do you need?" I bellowed.

"I swear Jake, I had no idea. Edward saw the witches that took her through your mind, and he described them to me. I'm pretty sure that it was Damian and Wallace Threshold. They are brothers that my father used to associate with, but they had a disagreement years ago and my family hasn't heard of them since."

"Edward, you can't believe this crap?" I asked in disbelief.

"He's not lying. I can read his mind Jacob."

"He's a witch; obviously he's lying to you through his mind!" I yelled frustrated.

"No, he's not. I would have thought so too, but this being the truth makes more sense, just let him explain." Edward encouraged

"Why, so he can just control my mind as he's obviously done to all of you." I couldn't believe that all of them were allowing this, especially Edward. I really thought he was the one person that would never give up on Ness, and never take a horrible lying witches' word.

"Our minds aren't being controlled, Greg told us why they would want Renesmee and it makes sense." Edward said.

I wasn't getting anywhere by arguing, so I decided to give them a few minutes to explain before I figured out a way to rip Greg's head off. "Fine, let's hear this wonderful explanation."

Greg uneasily stepped forward to speak. "When Nes…" Greg looked over at Bella briefly, and gulped. "When Renesmee ripped my throat out but then she healed me, I told my father about what happened. He brought up the issue of the hybrid with the healing powers to the witching council, and they were very interested in her. Witches have the power to heal, but it takes at least three working together to heal a single person, and even then, major injuries and diseases are impossible so they must have seen the potential in her."

"Potential for what?" I said angrily, shaking from the rage.

"Potential to cure…anything, everything. Cancer, immune disorders, incurable diseases of all sorts. If they could take her saliva and study it, even harvest it somehow, think of all the lives that could be saved. They told me about your father's passing from cancer, he could have lived if you had only met her sooner."

"Don't talk about my father." I warned him. "And none of this makes sense at all. You actually expect us to believe that the witching council, or whatever, took Ness so they can use her to save people's lives? So this is all just some big coincidence that this happened at the same time that the Romanians have kidnapped your family, and trying to take over the world?" I said in disbelief.

"No, the council didn't take her; at least they didn't try to yet. Damian and Wallace have a third brother, his name is Spencer, and he is a member of the council. He must have told them about Nes…Renesmee and they must have gotten involved with the Romanians somehow." Greg said quickly

"And why would the Romanians want Nessie?" I spoke slowly trying not to explode again.

"Why wouldn't they? She can heal, she's the princess of the largest North American vamp coven, and if they have her, they have something to bargain with. The witch council wants her almost as bad as you do. By kidnapping her, not only could they get more witches to join in their cause, but they could also get all of you to fight the Volturi with them in order to get her back. They're army will be unstoppable, and the Volturi will never stand a chance." Greg explained.

"Ok, what I still don't understand is, how the hell did the Romanians find out that we were here helping you, and how did they know exactly where we would be on the road and when? They knew that I would be escorting Nessie to the airport; the only thing they didn't know was that Seth would be there too. If you are so innocent, then how did they know?"

"Zack" Greg said. "Zack has been double crossing us. He managed to relay information back to them and he disappeared right after you decided to take Renesmee back to Washington. He knew the flight number, he knew the route you would take to get to the airport, but he didn't know that you decided on sending Seth instead. I'm sure they used a mortality spell on the car, then used a magical invisible wall to make it crash."

"A mortality spell?" I asked confused.

"It's a very powerful, very difficult spell to conjure. It makes the immortal, mortal, but doesn't last more than several hours, so you should be back to normal soon. Had Seth not been in the car with you, you would have gotten the full dosage of the spell and the impact of the crash would have killed you for sure. Since Seth was in the front seat, he got most of it, that's why he was hurt worse."

"But I was Ok, I mean not great, but Ok after the crash. I got myself out, and Ness and Seth, before I started feeling weak." I said confused.

"Well it's possible that the spell took longer to affect you, but I'm pretty sure that it was actually adrenalin or pure determination that got yourself and your friends out; the spells are usually immediate." Greg offered.

I didn't care if Greg really had any knowledge of his coven mate's betrayal or not, all I cared about was getting Ness back and making someone pay for her being taken. I hated Greg as much as I would have if he was guilty, and witches became my biggest loathed inhuman creatures. I hated them more than I ever hated vampires, and the idea of good witches seemed even more unrealistic than the idea of good vampires had been to me years ago. This was like déjà vu of when Bella was trying to convince me that Edward was good, except this time, I had a whole house full of people that I trusted telling me that Greg was good; but I just couldn't believe it. I never wanted to kill anyone more than Greg, I wanted to watch his worthless body as it withered on the ground with his blood spilling out by the gallons.

"His death isn't going to bring Nessie back; in fact, it will probably seal her fate. Jacob listen to me, if he and his friends die, then their families won't have a reason left to fight against the Romanians. They will stop resisting their help to them, and we will never be able to get her back." Edward tried reasoning with me.

"I can't believe you Edward. Why are you even still here? Shouldn't you be out tearing everything up until you find your daughter, how can you be so calm?"

"Because I want to see her again. If we charge in there, if we lose focus even for a minute, they won't hesitate to take the advantage. If they kill us, and they go on to fight the Volturi, then they will win and there won't be a world left for my daughter to live in, at least not one I'd want her living in." Edward said to me intensely. Then he stiffened his body and turned to Carlisle. "They're here."

Carlisle nodded understandingly, and then took a deep breath and went for the door. I looked over at Edward confused, and then noticed as the whole room became heavy with tension and wondered why the hell Jasper wasn't controlling the room better.

"Where do you want us?" The voice of a youngish girl asked.

"Please, come in, make yourselves at home." Carlisle said.

The girl, along with three others walked in the room. Their red eyes glowed like rubies under the darkness of their black cloaks. I peered over at Sam who looked like he was having a hard time restraining himself from attacking the vampires.

"Jane, we are all on the same side here, so stop attacking my wife." Edward seethed

"Just checking." She said in a sweetly sinister voice. What the hell was she doing to Bella?

Bella hissed at her, but she just smiled in return.

"Ok, what the hell is going on?" I asked finally.

"This is Jane, Alec, Felix and Demetri. They are sort of like the Volturi's henchmen. They are all extremely powerful, the best of our species." Carlisle introduced them; obviously he was boosting their appeal for their benefit, because none of us here would ever be impressed by these man-eating leeches no matter their extra powers.

"So why are they here?" I asked bitterly. Being with Nessie has forced me to care for the Cullens as if they were my own family, but this was really pushing my limit and truly went against my nature. Edward came behind me and placed his hand on my shoulder kindly but firmly, so I knew that attacking these vamps was not an option.

"Between Jane and Alec alone, they have taken out countless armies and they will be a definite asset to our fight." Carlisle explained.

"There will be no fight; we will end this quickly." Jane said flatly.

"Great, and how do you plan on doing that?"

"Demetri is the world's best tracker, we will bring the end of this matter to them. Alec will anesthetize the entire group and if any happen to slip through, I will take care of them. Once anesthetized, Felix and Demetri will kill them all quickly." Jane explained.

"Sounds good, let's go now." I said impatiently, not caring about the vamps anymore. I just needed Nessie safe in my arms again.

"No. I will not fight alongside of the dogs. They stay, or we stay." Jane looked to Carlisle for an answer.

"Jane, I already spoke to Aro about this. We need the wolves, they are very strong and…"

Carlisle was immediately thrown to the ground and cringed in pain. We all looked to the little blond smiling vampire with wide shocked eyes. The Cullens just waited for her fun in torturing Carlisle to recede, obviously there was nothing that they could do. This must be what she was trying to do to Bella when she first came into the room. Talk about witches, damn.

"Aro isn't here at the moment, which means I make the decisions." Jane said conniving.

"Jane, enough." Edward ordered, which didn't make Jane look too happy, so she turned her pain infliction on him. He fell to his knees momentarily but Bella stepped forward quickly, and rested her hand on his back, which somehow relieved his pain.

Jane huffed out of frustration as Edward stood back up, and smirked at her. "That's it, we go alone." Jane announced before walking out of the house and the other three cloaked vamps followed.

"Edward, I have to be there to get to Ness. If they start fighting without us…" I was scared to death at the idea of these Volturi members attacking the witches and Romanians without me being there to get Nessie out safely. She could easily get caught in the cross fires, and I was shaking because of the mental image that thought brought to me.

Edward didn't like my mental picture either. "If we don't go by Jane's rules, she could turn on us all and Aro doesn't care enough about us to punish her for it." Edward said seeming as though he was trying to convince himself as much as me.

"Well, how did Bella just protect you from her?" I asked quickly.

"I projected my shield onto him. We've been working on it over the years, but the best I can do is protect someone that I'm touching." Bella answered me.

"Ok, well you and me then, let's go get Nessie." I told her.

"No Jacob, they will just kill us regardless. My shield only works for mental attacks, so we can still be killed by Felix if he decides to attack us, and I have no idea how it will act towards a witches spell. Look Jake, I'd be more than willing to die for her, you know I would, but it won't accomplish anything. If the fight doesn't end with them tonight, then we will be needed here to fight them tomorrow." Bella reasoned with me and I knew she was right.

No matter how helpless it made me feel, we had no choice. We had to stay here and wait to see what the outcome would be of the four Volturi members attacking the Romanians alone, and pray the Ness was kept somewhere safe away from the battle. If she is as important as Greg said she is, then I had to believe that the witches at least, would make sure she was Ok. I didn't have to be a mind reader to know that's where Edwards's thoughts were at the moment as well.

"She will be Ok Jake, I promise you." Edward said quietly. Bella had her arm around him, but stretched out her other arm so she could grab my hand. The three of us were linked in a way that went far beyond this comforting gesture. No matter how important the witches and Romanians thought Nessie was, all the people in the world she could potentially save, was nothing compare to the importance she was personally to the three of us, above all else.

***Ok, I know Bella had a more powerful shield in the book, but this is an AU and in this story, she hasn't learned it completely yet because the Volturi never threatened them. ****Please Review***


	30. Goners

**Changing Tides**

A/N_:__ Ok, so with all the pics coming out of the 'Breaking Dawn' movie set, it's made me really miss writing about Edward and Bella. It might be really cheesy to promote my new story on this one, but I'm going to do it anyway. I started writing a story called __Moon Scars__, it's about Edward and Bella, but it's an AH or all human, meaning there are no vampires. It definitely has a twilight feel though, and most of the Twilight Characters are in the story. -Edward is a lost soul and abused orphan that the Cullens take in, Bella is the good police chief's daughter, and their worlds collide; will Bella save the broken Edward, or will he bring her down with him. It's based on movies like 'A Walk to Remember' and 'Here on Earth' but no one dies. -It's rated M for mature themes and language, but I hope you give it a chance and read it. I'm about four chapters in, and have a few more mapped out in my head already. If you'd like to read it, you'll find it listed in my profile. *Don't worry about this story, I will not slow my updates but it is coming to an end soon.*_

Ch 30 – _Goners _

…..

Waiting for any kind of word about the battle between the four Volturi members and the Romanians, was pure torture. My strength was coming back and Edward re-set my fractured hand so it would heal correctly but it hardly hurt anymore, nothing hurt, except for my heart and the hole in my stomach that Nessie being missing left. Seth finally woke up and he was in so much physical pain that Carlisle shot him full of morphine, which he burned off in less than an hour. Because Seth had a stronger concentration of the mortality spell, as Greg called it, it took him much longer to heal than it took me.

Every minute that ticked by felt like a month, and every hour felt more like a year. I hated being stationary, I wanted to be in action; I wanted to phase and let my gravity pull me to her. I could feel my wolf inside me again, the mortality spell had locked it up, but now it was free and I knew I could do it. It took every ounce of self control to stay in human form inside the Cullen house, but it was necessary for me to remain in place because if I attacked them alone, I'd just end up dead and never see My Nessie again.

"Ok, do it again." I heard Bella say, and that brought my attention to her.

"Are you sure?" Greg asked

"Do it!" Edward said sternly.

Greg put his hand on Edward sending the electric shocks on him, forcing him to the ground. What the hell?

"What are you doing?" I charged up to them and pushed Greg to the side.

Edward recovered himself then stood back up. "Wow pup, I never thought I'd have my own guard dog, thanks." He joked

I ignored him. "What the hell are you doing?" I yelled at Greg.

"Relax Jake; he was just trying to help Bella." Edward said becoming serious again.

"Really, how does shocking you help Bella?" I asked Edward but kept my untrusting eyes on Greg.

"I asked him to help me. I asked him to shock me to see if my shield worked against him, and it did, I didn't feel a thing. So I'm having Greg Shock Edward so I can work on projecting my shield over him." Bella explained.

"You were able to protect him from Jane before, so why is Greg able to shock him now?" I asked confused.

"I was touching Edward when Jane shocked him, but now I'm trying to protect him without touching him." She said.

"Well, it's not working." I stated the obvious.

"No, it is working" Edward disagreed "some of the time."

"Some of the time isn't really helpful is it?" I said frustrated.

"She's actually come a long way over the past couple of hours, I'm sure over time she'll be able to do it consistently." Edward defended his wife.

"We don't exactly have _time_ right now though, do we?" I asked with more attitude then I intended.

"It's better than just sitting here and doing nothing!" Bella exploded. "All we have right now is time, hopefully Jane and Alec took out the whole Romanian army by now, and Renesmee is on her way back to us, but on the off chance that things didn't go as planned, we need to be as prepared as possible."

"Damn Bells, I'm sorry." I said remorsefully, "I didn't mean to snap at you like that. I'm just losing it here." I said then I had to excuse myself outside because I could feel myself starting to well up, and that wasn't something I wanted anyone witnessing.

I sat outside and just stared at the dark sky while I tried to get a hold of myself. I just felt sick, and I knew it had nothing to do with the spell that was put on me. I knew from the first time that I saw Nessie, I'd never be able to live without her but being away from her now in this situation, I felt like I was dying already.

I stayed on the porch through the night and was grateful that no one came out to bother me. Edward must have heard from my mind that I needed time alone, and he kept everyone away. I couldn't sleep, and I couldn't even think, the pain in my chest and stomach receded until there was nothing; I was completely numb. I just stared at the sky and watched the lights from some airplanes and satellites fly across the darkness, when I heard some commotion from inside the house.

"Jacob, Greg was sent a message." Edward said from inside the house. He didn't bother coming out to tell me because he knew I'd be able to hear him just fine.

I rushed inside the house. "What was it?" I asked anxiously.

"My mother said that they were attacked by four vampires with special gifts, but…they captured them." Greg said carefully, hoping I wouldn't attack him out of anger.

Everyone in the room was quiet; shocked that these supposed unbeatable vampires were overtaken. If the four Volturi vampires were able to take down any army that they faced before but failed now, then what chance did we have going up against them. Eleven wolves, thirteen vampires (The Denalis showed up to help) and three adolescent witches, against a huge army strong enough to capture Jane and Alec. It was hopeless, I wanted to just lie down and die right there.

"Don't die just yet Jake; we're going to need you for the battle." Edward said to me. "They're going to attack the school tomorrow."

"What? Greg dreamed that?" I asked quickly.

"My mother said she overheard them speaking of the attack." Greg said quickly.

"But why? If the Romanians are already so powerful, then why do they need three young witches?" I asked.

"They don't, not anymore. One of the Volturi members told them about everyone convened here preparing to attack them, so they decided to take us all out before going to Italy. They are worried that if they don't kill everyone here, we'll all join up with the Volturi, and they don't want to see that happening." Greg explained.

"How do we prevent getting the students at the school involved in this?" Sam asked concerned about the humans first and foremost.

"I just handled that." Carlisle said as he came walking into the room. "I called the headmaster and told them that we were from a major film company and wished to film a movie there tomorrow, and we'd need the campus empty. They said no at first, but I rented out the entire Hilton hotel in town and the students will be kept there. They just couldn't pass up the amount of money I offered them; I practically bought the school. They are all packing up as we speak."

I had to hand it to Carlisle, that was amazing quick thinking. Sam was satisfied with the plan and because we weren't sure on the exact time the Romanians would be attacking, we would station ourselves there at nightfall as soon as the campus is completely evacuated.

Carlisle went to the school right away so he could oversee the removal of humans, and he called us around nine pm and said the coast was clear, so we all headed over. Seth was almost back to normal by then, so moving him wasn't a problem. None of us had very much hope in actually winning the battle, but we would rather die fighting then sit back a wait for death to find us.

"We're not going to die, Jacob." Edward said sternly. "You have to get your head in a better place than that. Think positively." He almost had a paternal tone as he spoke, which was freaking weird coming from him given our history, but it was actually kind of right too; I mean he was older than my great-grandfather and if we make it through this fight, I would definitely be marrying his daughter.

"Well, son" he said while placing his hand on my shoulder. "As long as you keep your head in the right place, you can think of me any way you want."

Ok, now I was just annoyed. "How the hell are we going to beat them? Greg said that they have over a hundred on their side, not to mention powerful witches."

"Witches that don't want to be fighting in the first place." Edward said. "As far as we can tell, only a couple witches are actually friendly with the Romanians, all of the others are just prisoners and with their sons fighting with us, they are going to do what they can to _not_ attack us."

"How were Jane and Alec captured anyway?" I asked finally.

"The witches are pretty powerful when there are so many working together. They have their own form of mental shield, kind of like Bella's, and they were able to shield the Romanians who were then able to capture the Volturi guard members. They are using some kind of magical chains to bind them now; truthfully I have no idea why they didn't just kill them instead of keeping them as prisoners." Edward explained.

"You got all of this from one of Greg's dreams?" I asked.

"Dreams are pretty amazing things. You can fit so much information and images in such a short amount of time; you should just hear some of the stuff most people dream about. The problem with dreams though, is that they can be so layered that it can confuse the dreamer, but a vampire's mind is able to process a large amount of information at a time, so I am able to pick up stuff that even Greg didn't understand or even see." Edward explained.

It felt like we were preparing for a medieval battle between opposing kingdoms, and we were defending our castle. The huge school was completely desolate and as the evening crept on, an ominous fog rolled in making visibility lessen to only about fifty feet or so. Great, now we're going to be blind when they attack us.

We stayed up all night just going over battle strategies and positions we would take. We weren't using bows and arrows like they did in the days of Camelot, so a defensive position on the higher levels of the school wouldn't help when it came to actually fighting, but if they used some other form of initial attack on us, then we could use the school walls as a protective barrier. Greg said that witches aren't capable of major artificial attacks like fireballs and lightning bolts out of thin air, but they could use nature as weapons, like trees crashing over and boulders falling off cliffs. If there is already fire burning somewhere, they could control the flames, and move water and what not.

Everyone had a plan for what they wanted to do during the fight, mine was to stay as low as possible and get to their back line to look for Nessie. She was my priority, the only thing I really cared about. Bella was going to do what she can with her inconsistent shield, and Edward was going to be her personal body guard while she concentrated.

I actually felt really bad for Edward. He was an extremely overprotective kind of guy and not only did he have to worry about finding his daughter, but this was the first real battle Bella will have ever been in and I know it goes against his nature to actually let her fight. I personally think that Bella is one tough vamp, hell Nessie is one of the toughest people I know and she isn't even half as physically strong as her mother. But still, the stress on Edwards face is extremely apparent, in fact everyone wore masks of stress and tension; again what the hell was up with Jasper's mood control thing, damn where was he with that? Though it was obvious that Jasper was fully engulfed in battle plans, and probably didn't even notice the emotional climate at the moment.

I have never been worried about a fight before. I can remember my first fight as clear as day and I had zero fear, of course it was five wolves verse one dreadlocked vamp, but still. The newborn fight didn't worry me either, even though the Cullens kept telling us how dangerous it was. But this fight was completely different, I had so much more to lose now; this world had so much more to lose. Nessie made this world a better place when she entered it, and it was impossible to imagine it without her again.

I started thinking about all the agonizing crap I put her through when I found out what she was, then again when I found out who she was; it all seems like such a tragic waste now. I hate that I missed out on so many amazing moments that I could have spent with her if I wasn't so stupid and pushed her away thinking she was too young. Or hell, if I didn't throw a fit at Bella and Edward's wedding, I probably would have known her from the time she was born. Who was I kidding, I was such a moron that I didn't deserve someone as perfect as Ness. It would be much more just if she was killed, and sent to heaven leaving me to live forever in an endless hell on earth without her.

"Hey, you have to stop thinking about that stuff, you need to focus and know in your head that you'll see her again." Edward said quietly from behind me, sounding all supportive and paternal again.

"I know, this is just the hardest thing I've ever had to face." I told him knowing it was for him as well.

"We'll get through it, we always do." He assured me confidently, and then he stiffened his body. "They're here, they decided to come early." He said quickly then raced off presumably to find Bella. It was early in the morning but still dark out, not that we needed to light to see.

Everything was pure mayhem as people raced around to get to the spot that they planned on being in for the fight. Most of the wolves were already phased and barring their fangs, but for some reason, I changed my mind about wanting to phase myself, and I choose to stay in human form, at least for the time being. I knew that I was fully capable of phasing again, but I had an intense desire to rip something apart with my bare hands.

We ran to head them off so they wouldn't come too far into the campus, Carlisle already spent a fortune on this place, and so the less we damaged it, the better. As I saw them running towards us at full speed, I suddenly lost my fear and a new determination overtook me. I would not fail Nessie, I couldn't; I had to save her.

They attacked in waves; the weakest came first like sacrificial lambs for the slaughtering, and they were easily dispatched. I never felt the need to phase; my human form was strong enough for them but the next wave of attacking vampires were definitely stronger. So far, it was only vampires that we were battling against, there were no signs of any witching attacks. But the more vampires we killed, the more that seemed to be coming, then I noticed a strange trend. I could have sworn that I already killed the vampire that I was about to take out.

"It's a doppelganger spell." Greg yelled as he beheaded a vampire. "Bella, it's just a mirage, but if our brains think we're fighting, then our bodies believe it." Greg said in a rush. "Now would be a good time for that shield of yours."

I saw Edward rip apart a vampire that had been attacking Bella while she seemed to go in a trace, obviously she was trying to concentrate. Suddenly, the amount of vampires we were fighting was cut in half, and we were able to take them out much easier. Damn, Bella actually did it.

We had been fighting in the courtyard in the middle of campus, but after we finished off the vamps there, we headed for the surrounding forest where we knew the Romanian leaders and their captives would be waiting. We thought that we took out a good number of their forces, but as we reached the tree line, we realized how wrong we were. None from our side had lost their life, but it didn't matter, we were outnumbered at least six to one. I looked over their fighters quickly hoping to see some sign of Nessie somewhere, but all I saw were vampires, more and more vampires.

"How the hell did they get so many so quickly?" I heard Jasper say quietly as we stood there for a moment before the attack.

"I didn't even know that there were so many vampires in the US." Emmet responded. I could hear Sam huff in anticipation, and the rest of the wolves followed his lead and bared their fangs, ready to attack on command.

"This does not have to happen like this." A vampire stepped forward that oddly resembled what I would think Dracula would look like.

"And what are your terms then, Stefan?" Carlisle asked.

"Join us, and come to Italy." The Dracula look-a-like stated.

"This world has seen enough of monsters in the past, we can't let you take over and allow that kind of monstrosity again." Carlisle said slowly.

"This idea of lurking in the shadows and hiding what we truly are, is the monstrosity. We are the predators, we should never have to hide from our prey. The time of cowering from a weaker species, from our food, is over. After tonight, we take on the Italians, then we take on the world." The Romanian leader announced.

"So be it." Carlisle said with resolution.

I looked briefly at my allies, my family, and I knew that it was impossible for us to make it out of this fight fully intact; even if we somehow miraculously managed to win the war, we would still lose. But this was a battle for all of mankind and if there were a cause worthy enough to give our lives for, this would be it. As for me, the whole world could burn down in this moment as long as I was able to get to my Ness, so as selfish as that may seem, she was still my priority.

Suddenly, we were all overtaken my immense pain, it was like our brains were going to explode out of our heads and the ringing in our ears was so intense that I was sure we'd be deafened permanently. Every single one of us fell to our knees as the excruciating pain devoured us, every single one of us that is, except for Bella. This wasn't the work of Jane, Edward said that she could only focus her wrath on one victim at a time, this pain was more like the one Greg inflicted on me, except it was ten times more potent. The opposing side ran to attack us while we were down, but we weren't down for long, Bella came through for us again and with her shield protecting us, we were back in the fight.

There were just too many of them, they were absolutely everywhere and all over us, and just when I thought we were all goners….

***Hehe, don't you hate cliff hangers, I know I do. Sorry, but that's the way it has to be. ****Please review**** and check out my other stories as well. This story is coming to an end, one or two more chapters left.***


	31. The Rabbit Hole

**Changing Tides**

A/N: _I never meant for the story to end like this, but it kind of got away from me and took on a life of its own. I hope you enjoy it and don't go WTF, because that was sort of my reaction after I re-read it._

Ch 31- _The Rabbit Hole_

…..

There were just too many of them, they were like locust and being in the trees just made it that much more difficult to properly attack any of them. From behind their attacking line, I could see several torches being lit. I had thought we were goners before, but now I was sure of it.

"They are going to use the fire as a weapon." Greg yelled at us, and just then, the flames danced off of the torches and came at us like flying snakes of fire. We all ducked down, to avoid being burned as they charged us again. We weren't going to survive this; it was only a matter of taking out as many of their numbers as possible. I desperately fought to get as close as possible to their back line, hoping to get a last glimpse of Nessie before I died.

It became too much, and I gave up my stupid desire to remain human, and I phased. I wasn't sure why I wanted to stay human so bad, perhaps it was because I knew death was inevitable, and I wanted to die as a human. What would happen if I was killed as a wolf, would my body remain in wolf form until it rotted into the Earth, or would I return to my original form the moment my heart stopped beating?

I was in the middle of fighting two vamps, when another jumped on my back. I rolled around to get the leech off me and trying to avoid its poisonous bite, but it was difficult. I never had fleas before, but I imagine that this is what it would feel like, annoying and itchy.

"Stop!" One of the Romanian leaders commanded and less than half a moment latter, their fighters pulled back on stopped fighting us.

I was still on the ground because I had been rolling around, so I just laid there for a moment to catch my breath.

"Aro my old friend, how nice of you to join the party." The Romanian said. I looked back and saw a huge mass of black cloaked vampires standing in uniformed regiment.

"I believe you have something that belongs to me, four some-things to be exact." Aro, I assume, said in a sinisterly pleasant tone.

"It was they, who attacked me; I hold them, rightfully-so, as prisoners." The Romanian said.

"I think not. They only went there because you planned on this uprising against us, and of course, that cannot be tolerated."

I stopped listening to the ancient leaders argue over who's got a bigger pair, and I used the time of cease fire to quietly creep further and further back into the Romanian's guard, looking for Ness. I don't know how they missed a giant wolf crawling past them, but I wasn't about to stop and ask them either. I could hear the fight erupt again behind me, but by that time, I was already past their fighters and now I was surrounded by witches.

One of the witches barred a striking resemblance to Greg, so I guessed that she must be his mother. I figured they pretty much hated me because of what happened to Greg, but they at least looked less threatening than the vampire, and they smelled better.

"Jacob?" The woman who I assumed to be Greg's mother asked.

I hesitantly nodded not sure what she planned on doing to me.

"My name is Roberta; I believe you know my son Greg?" She asked then looked around to make sure that the Romanian leaders weren't close by.

I nodded again.

"Nessie told me about you." She said quietly. My heart just about leaped out of my chest and a low whine came from deep inside my core.

"Here, eat this." She held out a strange looking plant. I looked at it but shook my head no. There was no way that I was going to eat some strange plant, it was probably poisonous. "It's a farngal plant, it enables animals to speak for a short time, and it should work for you too." She explained.

Really? She could be lying, but at this point what difference did it make if I was poisoned or not. I gently ate the plant out of her hand, and amazingly I could speak, though my mouth didn't move. It was like there was a microphone in my mind but only the thoughts I wished to be communicated out loud, was able to be heard.

"Where is Nessie?" I asked forcefully not bothering to waste time on pleasantries.

"The Romanian leaders keep her close by them; they don't trust us around her anymore after they heard us conspiring together yesterday." Roberta explained.

"Where?" I asked quickly.

"They are over that way." She pointed to the left. "But they are being guarded by six strong warrior vampires, and two witches loyal to them." She said trying to caution me. I started running in that direction when she yelled after me. "Is my son safe?"

"He was ok the last time I saw him, but that was a whole battle ago." I said before running at full speed towards the Romanian leaders.

That's when I saw her. She was sitting on the ground watching the fight intently and full of terror as she worried about her family. Besides the fact that a witch was restraining her, she looked otherwise unharmed. I wanted to run to her, to rip through every last one of them, but I knew that it had to be done carefully or I'd get us both killed. I slowly crept closer when she must have smelled me or perhaps felt our pull, and she turned and looked right at me, her captures didn't notice me.

"Shh" I said as quiet as possible. Her face ranged in emotion from happiness that I was there, to concern, and then confusion as to how she could hear me even though I was in wolf form.

Our best chance was getting rid of the witches before they had a chance to alert the Romanians of my presence. Nessie watched me carefully as I snuck closer and closer to them, before finally attacking the one closest to me. He didn't even have a chance; I took his head off in one swift bite. He was absolutely disgusting, nothing like killing a vamp. Vampires have no flavor when you shred them, but this witch tasted bitter and I knew it would be a while before I got that flavor out of my mouth.

The remaining witch didn't notice that his brother was currently decapitated, he was too busy trying to perform a spell on his opponents, but it was failing because Bella still had her shield up strong. The Romanians didn't count on Bella being able to block the witches, and with the help of the highly trained Volturi Guard, they were slowly starting to lose their numbers and our side was gaining the lead. It wasn't chaos anymore, it was more like a well orchestrated routine or a dance, and for the first time since Nessie was taken, I had hope.

I slowly inched my way close to the witch, as Nessie watched me with wide eyes. I crouched down ready to spring when…

"JAKE!" Nessie screamed and that's when I felt a hard punch to my back, except it wasn't a punch; it was a long blade that penetrated my spinal cord completely severing it. I felt like my whole body was cut in half leaving my lower half completely numb and unmovable. I looked down and saw my blood gushing out, and I knew without a doubt that this wound was something that even a shape shifter's rapidly healing body couldn't fix.

Felix, the largest Volturi guard member, walked around me with a smug smile on his face. Greg said that one of the Volturi members told the Romanians that we were preparing for a fight, and apparently it was this guy.

"You really thought you were strong enough to beat the Romanians? They are the strongest force to ever rise up since the Volturi took over centuries ago." Felix was telling me. As I bled out, my vision started failing and my hearing sounded like I was under water. I could feel myself get weaker and I knew I was dying. I was trying not to listen to the vampire, because I knew I only had minutes left and I didn't want to spend them listening to his voice. I could hear Ness screaming in the background and though I hated how panicked she sounded, I was just grateful to be hearing her at all.

"Aro never appreciated me; I was always the lowest on the totem pole. He only sent me on missions because of my intimidating size, but he always made sure that Jane put me in my place and made me feel worthless." Felix went on. "But the Romanians treat me with respect."

I started blacking out so my eyes wheeled, searching for Nessie, I wanted her face to be the last thing I saw, but my attempts to find her failed, and everything went dark. My heart beat two more times, and then it was over…..

***The End – ****Please Review*******

* * *

**Haha, just kidding.**

I opened my eyes, knowing I was dead, and sat up not sure what I'd find. If I was in heaven, then I would be in a place that consisted of nothing but Nessie's beautiful face, but if I was in hell, I would be stuck somewhere and Nessie would be forever out of my reach. I looked around and happily, Nessie was there. She smiled at me and grabbed my hand.

"Hey" She said sweetly

"You're here." I said and reached for her face, but she grabbed my hand and held it in hers.

"Of course I'm here, where else would I be?" She asked.

"I thought I lost you forever."

"Forever is a long time." She said quietly.

I didn't really understand what she meant by that, in fact everything about the situation was confusing and as I looked around, I had no idea where I was, everything was different.

"What happened, where are we?"

"You mean, you don't remember?" She asked.

"Well obviously, I'm dead. Please tell me you're not dead too? You are just a figment of my heaven right, and the real you is still alive and on Earth?"

"I'm not dead, and neither are you. The witch put you under a spell, and you've been sleeping for a very long time. He died before removing the spell, so we couldn't wake you up until we found another witch strong enough to do it." She explained.

"How long has it been?" I said cautiously.

"Fifty years."

"What?" I was shocked, how could I have been sleeping for fifty years? "Oh, my god. Well, how are you, what have you been doing all this time, where's everyone at?" I asked.

She seemed to hesitate, but then took a deep breath and answered me. "The Romanians won the battle, and they took over for the Volturi. The world…let's just say that it's been tough. Vampires live out in the open, and keep humans in these farms where they are bred and harvested. I've been forced to work with them and use my healing powers to heal the humans if they are sick. The vampire population is running ramped and there aren't enough humans to feed everyone, so they can't afford for any of them to get sick."

"That's horrible, are you sure this isn't hell?" I asked

"You're not dead, but maybe death would be better than this." She said

"So where's your family?" I asked wondering how the Cullens were taking this new world.

"They all died in the battle against the Romanians." She said quietly. "They all did, and so did the wolves. I was taken right after Felix stabbed you, so I thought you were dead too, but then I found you five years ago. The Romanians took you and locked you in their tower, but you were still in wolf form, so you survived all this time, and the spell kept you in a hibernating state."

"But you're ok though, being alone all this time in this hell on Earth must have been horrible for you."

"Well, I wasn't exactly alone. Jake, you know I loved you right?" She told me regretfully

"Loved?" I asked confused at her past tense form of the word.

"I thought you were dead, the whole world was practically dead, I was so lost and alone but then Nahuel found me." Oh god no. "He was all I had, and he's protected me all this time. Since the Romanians took over, there really aren't marriages anymore, but if there was, then Nahuel and I'd be celebrating our forty ninth wedding anniversary. We have three kids, and they are all so amazing, you should just meet them."

This had to be hell, not only did the world suck and everyone that I cared about was dead, but Nessie, was married to Nahuel and they have kids, no way, not in this lifetime.

"Jake please don't be upset, not all is lost. Here, I want you to meet my oldest daughter. Isa, come in here please." She called.

I couldn't help the gapping jaw dropping expression on my face; her daughter was the spitting image of Bella.

"You started out loving my mother, then me, so maybe Isa is you're real future. This world doesn't offer courting, so if you like her, then she's yours." Nessie said with a smile. Ok now I know this isn't real, what the hell was going on? I shook my head at her then got up and walked through the door. I had no idea where I was at the moment, but I wasn't about to stay there either. I needed to get away; I needed to find my way back to where I belong, because this place definitely wasn't it.

The outside world was just as confusing as the place this _alternant Nessie_ had me in. Everything was dark and the sky was grey, though I had a feeling that it was the middle of the day. I kept walking and everywhere I turned, there were vampires. But none of them looked up from what they were doing, and they all looked ragged, and gangly, like they were all starving. Then suddenly, it was like they all finally heard my beating heart at the same time, and they all had lusting, ravenous expressions on their faces.

If this was the real world, then I really hope that these vamps kill me and quick. Edward was right; the Romanian ruling was definitely a world I didn't want to live in. They all launched at me in unison and bit down hard. As the darkness overtook me, I felt like I was falling, but it was in slow motion. It was like Alice in Wonderland's rabbit hole, and as I was falling, I saw all the faces of people who ever meant anything to me. My parents, grandparents, sisters, my pack, Sam's pack; hell even the Cullens were there and even in my rabbit hole of death, I still had an overwhelming desire to kick Emmet and throw something at Rosalie. But then there was Nessie, she was there and smiling as beautiful as ever and then all was calm, peaceful. This was not the Mrs. Nahuel like the one I had just encountered; this was My Nessie, the one who would always be mine.

"Jake, it's time." She said and that's when I hit the bottom of the tunnel. I realized then how bad hitting the bottom felt, and how nothing before hurt whatsoever. If I had just awoken from a fifty year slumber, then wouldn't I at least be stiff? And when the vamps sunk their teeth into me, then shouldn't the venom have been painful before it killed me? But crashing into the floor was the only thing that hurt, and it hurt badly. It felt like every bone in my body was broken and every breath that I took was labored and intensely painful.

"Jake, open your eyes." I knew that voice, it was Bella.

"Bella?" I asked confused. I opened my eyes, and my first thought was that she was Isa, Nessie's daughter because they looked so much alike.

"It was just a nightmare Jake." Edward came into view and smirked at me.

I sat up quickly and looked around; I was in my room in the school dorms. My eyes scanned for the one face that mattered in the moment, and I found her.

"Nessie" I breathed.

"Hey baby." She said with the most amazing smile. I wanted to reach out and touch her face, but that was just too eerily similar to the horrific night terror that I just had. Instead, she leaned over and kissed me passionately; Ok, _this _was definitely my girl.

"What happened?" I asked her groggily because I wasn't sure what exactly was real, and what was the nightmare. I just noticed that everyone else cleared out of the room leaving us alone, they probably left when Ness was kissing me.

"First of all, everyone is fine. Some of the wolves needed some recope time, but they'll be Ok. But Felix stabbed you with some kind of medieval looking sword thing, it was really bad." Nessie looked like she was chocked up at the thought of me being hurt. "I tried to get to you, but they had some kind of witch restraining spell on me. But then the Volturi came and they were able to take out the Romanians, with my mom shielding them from the witches of course."

"So, Carlisle and your dad put me back together?" I guessed.

She smiled sheepishly at me. "No, not exactly." Then she got serious. "You died Jake, like completely dead; that was the worst few moments of my life." A tear fell down her cheek, but she wiped it away quickly trying to be strong. "Greg came and did his shock thing on you, and miraculously, your heart started again…and then you were Ok." She said the end quickly.

"Ok, what aren't you telling me?" I asked knowing her all too well; god I loved that I could tell when she was lying or just with holding the whole truth, now. We really have come a long way since we first got together.

Ness looked away uncomfortably, and I had a feeling that she didn't plan on answering me.

"Nessie, no more secrets, remember?" I pressured her.

She bit her bottom lip, and looked down as she twiddled her fingers. "The wound was too bad for your natural wolf healing to save you, so I had to, you know…save you." She said and that's all she needed to say, I understood her completely.

She was still looking down ashamed of herself, so I lifted her chin with my hand and forced her to look at me. I burrowed my eyes deep into hers lovingly, and asked "I was delicious, wasn't I? See I told Edward that I was, but he didn't believe me." I started laughing at her, and she fought back a smile but her giggle broke free.

"God, I love you." I told her finally.

"I love you too, more than anything." She kissed me again, but then she pulled away and looked like she was pissed at me. "And what the hell was up with the crazy dream of me and Nahuel being all married, and my momma look-a-like daughter?"

I nodded my head in understanding "I bet your dad loved watching me dream up that one." I said annoyed with the mind reading, big mouthed, vampire. "Why the hell didn't he just wake me up?"

"He couldn't, you were in a coma and don't change the subject. I can't believe you still think there is something between me and Nahuel." She smacked me on the shoulder.

"Ow, I'm hurt here; died remember?" I said trying to make her feel guilty. But actually, the pain I felt when I first woke up was already receding.

"Jake, I love only you, and if you were to die, then I would walk this world forever in mourning of you." Ok, now she was trying to make me feel guilty for the dream that I had no control over.

"Good" I said, taking her by surprise. "Babe, all I want is for you to be miserable for eternity if I die. I mean, why should you be happy when I was stuck in a hell of a heaven without you?" I asked her unable to keep a straight face.

"You are so romantic." She shot me her most adorable crooked smile.

The Volturi took their newly reinforced dominance, along with their three loyal captured guard members, back to Italy. The war was over, so there was nothing left to do but be blissfully bored.

_***Ok, so this is in fact **__**The End**__**, but a happy little Epilogue will follow in the next couple of days. Boo, I know, it sucks that it's over, I had a blast writing this one and your reviews have been awesome, so thanks for that. But all good things must come to an end, and this was a story about discovery, and well, all things have now been discovered. Thanks again, and look out for the last part of the story, coming soon. **__**Please Review**__*****_


	32. Epilogue

**Changing Tides**

A/N: _Someone asked if Jacob was now a vampire because Nessie 'saved' him, and I thought I explained it, but if it wasn't clear or too confusing or maybe it was just forgettable, the answer is no. Venom heals a person's body before it changes them into a vampire, well Nessie is not venomous, but she does have the ability to heal with her spit, it just doesn't change the person into a vampire. So Jake was saved by Nessie's healing spit, just like Greg was earlier in the story, but neither are vampires now. Jake is the same loving wolf-man/shape shifter that he always was._

The Epilogue 

…..

"Hurry up idiot!" I couldn't believe how long Seth was taking in the bathroom, damn was he really a woman or what. Though calling him a woman is an insult to the female sex.

"Beauty takes time, stop bothering me." Seth yelled back from the other side of the door. He can't be serious.

"I'm going to tell your girlfriend how long it takes you to get ready."

"Shut up"

"Don't make me use the Alpha command on you to get you out of there." I threatened while smiling to myself. I've never actually used my alpha voice before, but there's always a first.

Seth opened the door with a sullen expression on his face. "There, I'm done"

"Ah Seth, you should have stayed in there longer, I was really hoping to tryout my Alpha on you. I had this awesome plan to make you put on lipstick and a bra, then make you tell your girlfriend that you're gay." I teased him.

"You would use the alpha command for something like that." He said bitterly "I should have stayed with Sam."

"Ha, but would Sam complement you on how cute you look tonight?" I grabbed him in a head lock and messed his perfect hair that he took over an hour to fix.

"You ass!" Seth said before running back into the bathroom to fix the mess I just made. I couldn't help but chuckle to myself.

"Hey Jake, don't you ever wonder what it's like to actually use the alpha command, I mean do you even know how?" Embry asked as he put on his tie.

I shrugged "I don't know, and lucky for you, I'll never find out."

"Oh come on I'm curious, try to make me do something mundane." Embry encouraged

"Like what?" I asked semi annoyed.

"I don't know, like pick my nose or something."

"That's disgusting, and who has to make you do that anyway, I see you digging in there all the time." I joked.

"I'm not ten anymore dude, I do have some dignity." Embry said insulted.

"Ok, you sure about this?" I asked him.

"Yeah why not, bend me to your will…but only for a minute." Embry said suddenly feeling uneasy.

"Ok, let's see…" Then Seth came out of the bathroom, and I had a brilliant idea. "You look deep into Seth's eyes, and tell him how much you love him." I commanded Embry. Seth looked between us confused.

"Ah crap, talk about putting your foot in your mouth. Nope, I'm not going to do it." Embry protested, but as if there was some invisible force making him move forward, he walked over to Seth and looked deep into his eyes. "I love you so much, Seth. You will always hold a special place deep within my heart." After Embry fulfilled my command, he broke free from his gaze on the very confused Seth and added "But you are a pansy, and Jake's an ass"

I couldn't help cracking up, in fact, I don't remember ever laughing that hard in my life.

"What the hell?" Seth asked confused.

"Jake Apha'd me. Don't take it personally bro." Embry slapped Seth on his shoulder. "I'm out guys" Em said before heading for the door.

"Yo Embry" Seth said before Embry could leave.

"Yeah man?"

"Touch her and I'll kill you." Seth said straight faced.

"Props dude" Embry said while holding out his fist, waiting for Seth to bump it with his fist. After their little display of camaraderie, Embry took off to pick up Leah.

Leah and Embry had a love-hate relationship. They weren't dating, but they did tend to lean on each other a lot because they both understood one another. Neither wanted to date someone for real, because they feared ruining their significant other's life if they happen to imprint on someone else. So they both decided to remain single, but for events like prom, they didn't want to go alone either.

Seth was surprisingly still dating the same girl as he was from the beginning of the school year, but he swears it's nothing serious. But Seth seems to forget that we have linked minds in wolf form, so we all know how much he really cares for her.

"Alright, I'm leaving; and if you don't want to get a very pissed tiny pixy vampire mad at you for being late to pick up her niece, you might want to get going soon too." Seth suggested.

"Yeah, yeah" I said. "If you didn't take forever in the bathroom, I'd be ready already!" I yelled after him as he walked down the hall. When the hell did we all become girls?

This was the first time that I put my suit on, Alice said that I didn't need to bother with a fitting because she guaranteed that it fit me perfectly, and it did. Damn, I had to give it to her, she may be annoying but she is definitely good at what she does.

Alice wanted to buy Nessie's corsage too, but I told her that I'd take care of that one myself; I wanted to at least put some effort into tonight. I grabbed her corsage that I picked up a couple of hours ago, and I threw my coat over my shoulder, before taking off. This will actually be my first formal dance, I dropped out too soon the first time I went to high school, and this was the first dance this year that we've been able to attend. Not that it mattered to me because dances weren't really my sort of thing, but I knew it was what Ness wanted and as I said before, what Nessie wants, Nessie gets.

I walked across campus to the room Ness shared with Bella, and knocked on the door.

"Hey Jake, looking spiffy." Bella answered the door.

"You too, you look nice." I told her knowing that the 'nice' comment would piss off Edward the way it did when I saw her at her first prom.

"She does not look nice; you really need to watch your insults pup." Edward said as I walked in the room.

"Well you look beautiful Edward." I joked.

"This I know" he said cockily.

"Bella, you do look amazing." I said finally

"Thanks, but wait until you see my daughter." She smiled.

"I'm waiting." I told her with a smile.

Then the door creaked open from the bathroom, and I had to reevaluate my life to make sure that I didn't actually die in battle, because I was sure that I was in heaven and an angel just walked out. _Damn, I should write that line down before I forget it, and use it on her later_. Beautiful wasn't a proper word for how she looked; she was breathtaking, mesmerizing, stunning, mind-blowing… I could keep going all day, but never find the right word to describe her.

"Babe you look…" I was speechless, and she almost seemed to like my gawking expression better than finding the right word.

"Well you look totally hot." She said with a smile, I could vaguely see Edward rolling his eyes next to me, but I didn't care. She grabbed my tie and pulled me down to her level for a passionate kiss, and by the time she let go, Edward was waiting in the hall. Ha-ha.

Ness walked ahead of me, and I couldn't help but notice how perfect her butt looked in the tight rose colored, knee length dress. God, I couldn't wait until this damn dance was over so I could take that perfect dress off her. Crap, you would think that I'd be able to control my thoughts better than that after being around Edward for so long.

I looked over at Edward, but his face looked cool and relaxed. Thank god, but, what the hell?

Bella must have seen my confusion, so she elbowed me. "I have you under my shield. You and Ness are Edward free tonight." She whispered, but of course Edward and Ness heard her. Nessie smiled and mouthed 'thank you' to her, and Edward had a WTF look on his face, which Bells ignored. Bella grabbed Edwards sour looking face with her hand, then kissed him before dragging him away, leaving Ness and I to walk the rest of the way to the school dance hall aka the gym, alone.

"Ready to boggie?" She asked.

"As ready as I'll ever be" We kissed before she led me to the big, over-crowded room. The dance had just started, but tons of people were already on the dance floor looking as though they've been dancing for hours. Emmet, who was supposed to be chaperoning, was spinning Rose around like they were Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers. Jasper and Alice, who were also chaperones, were spinning around too and I was surprised to see Bella actually fitting in with the other's seamlessly. I guess becoming a vampire has improved her dancing skills as well.

Seth and his girlfriend were swaying back and forth, and Embry and Leah were awkwardly fighting for the lead while they slowly moved in circles and stepped on each other's foot.

Ness and I were just about to go dance when…

"Hey man." Someone patted me on the shoulder "Nessie you look stunning."

"Thanks Greg, you sure do clean up nice." She complemented him back.

Greg met a chick teen witch named Becca, during the confrontation with the Romanians. Her family had been captured as well, and they seem to be pretty happy together. His other witching buddies were there as well, but I didn't care enough to learn their date's names.

Things have been quiet since the fall of the Romanians, and all was well in the supernatural world. Greg and his lackeys, minus the trader Zack who we never saw again, had been all cool and friendly. The relationship between the witches and the Cullens (besides Ness) however, was much like the one that the Quileute's had with the Cullens in the beginning, it was a forced but strained peace. They weren't enemies, but they sure as hell weren't friends either.

"Ok Babe, don't get mad if I step on your toes." I said as she pulled me on the dance floor. And of course I stepped on her toes, repeatedly. She never got mad or frustrated though; she would just laugh and look at me with nothing but love.

We danced for a couple of hours, and hung out with my pack and her family. I had to admit, it was actually really fun, who knew something as stupid as a dance could be so cool. Of course, I knew that I was only happy at this dance, and in life, because I had Nessie.

"Do you want to go outside for a while?" I asked Ness. The outside courtyard was also decorated with twinkle lights, and the music was playing softly. I pulled her into me and we danced slowly, while suddenly I became extremely nervous. It was May, but it was a particularly cold evening so there wasn't anyone else out at the moment. But it was perfect because in this moment, being alone with Ness was exactly what I needed.

"What's wrong with you, why are you shaking?" She asked concerned.

"Uh, I'm just cold." Wow, I was a bad liar; she rolled her eyes at me knowing that I never get cold.

"Babe, what's wrong?" She asked seriously.

"Nothing is wrong, in fact, my life has never been so right." We stopped dancing so I could look deep in her eyes. "You saved my life, a life that wasn't even worth saving until you came along. You saved me physically after the battle, but more importantly, you saved my soul. I was so lost before you, and I had no reason to even exist, and it took my dad dying to get me to come here, and I'm so grateful that I did."

I pulled out the little box that I had been hiding in my pocket all night, and I got down on my knee, presenting her with the ring. "Renesmee Carlie Cullen, you are my whole life, my whole heart, and my whole soul. I love you more than anything else in this world, and more than everything in the universe combined. You are my forever, and love doesn't exist without you. Will you marry me?"

She was crying subtly, but the emotions exuberating off of her, were so intense that I started crying with her. She nodded her head and pulled me up so I was standing. "Yes, yes, of course yes" She leaped into my arms and pressed her lips against mine. "I love you so much" She whispered between kisses, and I knew that I'd never get tired of hearing those words coming out of her perfect lips.

After blissfully holding each other for a while, we decided to go back in, Ness really wanted to show off her ring, and I didn't have the heart to tell her that they all had already seen it. I saved all year and sold one of the cars that I fixed up back in Washington to pay for the ring. I started out by asking Edward and Bella's permission, I figured that since Edward was so freaking old that he'd appreciate that sort of thing, and he did so they both gave me their blessing. But of course Alice found out somehow, and she insisted on coming with me to buy the ring. I wanted something simple, but Alice argued that Nessie was in no way simple, and she was right. So we compromised, a simple solitaire princess cut diamond engagement ring, but her matching wedding band was very elaborate and made the whole thing look much more flashy.

People at school looked at us funny for already being engaged, but we didn't care and there was less than a month left before graduation anyway. And that one month went by extremely fast. I scored a decent score on my SAT but not good enough to go to an Ivy League school, but Nessie didn't really care, she wanted to go to the College in Washington anyway. At twenty four years old, I finally graduated high school, and was actually really proud of myself.

I had hoped that my pack would spread their wings a little and go off to college somewhere, but they all applied and were accepted to Washington State with Ness and me. Which I selfishly couldn't have been happier about.

Nessie and I got married over the summer. It was a beautiful, magical day on the beach in LaPush, where all barriers between monster species crashed and crumbled to the ground. Edward gave Nessie away and when he placed her hand in mine, we both realized how far we had come, and we hugged like real family. Everyone started balling when he called me his son, and though it was strange, it was actually really cool too.

Charlie was weirded out about his almost nine year old granddaughter marrying me, but he got over it eventually and tried to not think about it. He had to learn real quick that monsters don't follow the same rules and laws that humans do, so he forced himself to let it go.

We toured Europe for our honeymoon, but we went alone. Of course Alice did force herself on us for a day to shop in France, but I didn't really mind. Nothing could bother me in this amazingly perfect world, with Ness by my side.

We moved to an apartment by the college campus, and the next four years were peaceful and perfectly uneventful. The Cullens all went back to their adult jobs, and put any kind of schooling behind them for at least a few decades. I couldn't believe it when I, Jacob _bad luck_ Black, not only had the most amazing wife in the world, but I was also a college graduate. I had a degree in business, and it was a real degree, one I rightfully earned; of course I did have the world's best tutor sharing a bed with me, but still.

After graduation, Nessie didn't care about her degree in communication, or her second degree in English, all she wanted to do was move to LaPush and start our car restoration business. We planned on moving to an apartment in LaPush until we saved enough money to buy a house, but the Cullens wouldn't have it. Esme had a beautiful four bedroom house built in the woods just inside the LaPush border. I hate handouts, but I decided that being married to Ness meant that I was going to be getting a lot of them and I just had to get used to it. After all, I didn't mind getting my Vanquish, which I still love driving, so a house is just one more thing that I had to accept. Bella was far worse about all the fancy stuff than I am, and she got used to it, so I thanked Esme and we moved into the elaborately decorated house.

The Cullens moved to Oregon City, obviously in Oregon. It was the closest they could be without the risk of exposure, but we did see them all the time which I was happy about. Ness talks a big talk, but I know it would be hard for her to be any further from her family then that.

Surprising enough, we actually stayed in contact with Greg, and his now witch wife Becca. They even brought their baby girl to see us in Washington, it was cool seeing them and I'm pretty sure that we'll always remain close.

Ness and I had been together for seven years, and never used any sort of protection sexually, so we figured that it wasn't possible for her to get pregnant, but we didn't mind, we were just so happy being the two of us. But soon after she turned fifteen, we were all surprised when we noticed her body start to change. It kind of made me feel sick again though, because first, I was worried about her health, but second, why now? Why did she not become pregnant until she was fifteen, does that mean that she wasn't fully matured before after all? Great, my old feelings of taking advantage of a child came back to me, but they were short lived because when our son was born healthy after a six month gestational period, I couldn't think of anything but how amazing life was.

Our son William Mason Black, was a smart little dude that grew at a normal, human pace, but was a little stronger and bigger than other kids his age. He had dark hair and a tanned complexion, though not as dark as mine. His eyes were an unusual green color, which Carlisle said was the exact color that Edward's had been as a human. But because he was so smart, he was also really sneaky. He was constantly terrorizing all the wolves in the area, and I couldn't help but laugh at him.

Sam stopped phasing and that left me in charge of a pack of seventeen, which wasn't as difficult as I would have thought. Leah was my Beta, so she was always there to back me up and take care of things when I was away. But things were quiet, not many vampires came into the area anymore so many of the other wolves slowly started retiring like Sam did. Paul quit soon after Sam, and Jared followed him. It had nothing to do with me as alpha, they just wanted to grow old with their imprintees.

When Will was five years old, Nessie gave birth to our daughter Sarah, named after my mom. She was just as beautiful as her brother, but her hair was the color of Nessie's. Both kids were very much human, they grew like humans and ate human food, but one day I found Will draining a squirrel that he caught in the yard, and after that he was able to do some super human stuff. Nessie was stronger when she hunted and apparently, so were our kids. They were both very similar to Nessie in strength and diet, until Will turned twelve, then his wolf side came out and he started phasing. He was the youngest to ever phase, but I can't say I was really surprised, and at his young age, he already was stronger than many of the adult wolves. Sarah never phased, but she stopped aging at sixteen just the same and she continued with similar physical qualities as Ness has.

Our lives remained on a steady course. There were ups and downs, flips and turns, but what was always consistent, was our love. There was never a time where I thought our family would be broken in anyway, but I never took my life for granted either. Every night as I hold Nessie in my arms, I inhale her scent deeply and thank god I have her. She was an amazing creature, completely one of a kind, and so I just stare at her in wonder; how could someone as unlucky in life as me, be the one who gets to spend forever with such a living miracle as Renesmee Cullen, My Nessie Black. All of the turmoil that I had been through in the first part of my life, was well worth it because I would take an eternity of pain, for just a second of Nessie's incredible, limitless love.

…

_***I hope you liked the Ending, I know it was long and Epilogues aren't supposed to be as long as a chapter, but I just wanted to close everything up. Sorry if I missed something that you were hoping to be included in the story, but as of now, I have absolutely no plans for a sequel. Thank you so much for reading and reviewing, I had a lot of fun writing this, and I hope you enjoyed it as well. **__**Please Review**__** one last time, and don't forget to check out my other stories. 'Stolen Moon', and 'Equinox' are both really fun Jacob/Nessie stories and my first story 'Morning Darkness' is primarily about Edward, but definitely has a good amount of Ness/Jake action.***_


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